Duality
by Zakku
Summary: For some people, landing in this world would be a dream, for others a nightmare. Me? Well I'm still on the fence, get back to me if I'm not dead in a few months
1. From clumsy beginnings

**Pre-emptive author's note**

 **Hello my dear readers, how's it going? I would just like to mention beforehand that this story will be a** _ **hell**_ **of a different read than my others. I'm talking darker tones, gore, explicit content in general. For those of you that have read my previous stories, this may not be for you. For those of you that haven't, and you decide to check out my other stories, just know that they are** _ **way**_ **more light hearted in comparison. This is also my first multi-chapter, so wish me luck.**

 **See you at the end of this chapter.**

 **Your author, Zakku**

 **Duality**

 **Chapter 1: From clumsy beginnings**

Where the hell was I?

Forcing my eyes open, I found myself staring up at several shades of blurry green mixed together. Disoriented, I stared up at the weird mish-mash of colour for a small while. Huh, looks like leaves. Did I fall asleep outside? Seems like it, since I'm just now registering the feeling of grass on the back of my head. Slowly, I tried to lift my head up...

OW OW- ok keeping my head still sounds better right now.

There was a blistering pain running through my head, it was like there was a knocker attached and a _very_ persistent salesman had just shown up. I am also just now registering that I can't feel anything below my head. Ok, panic level just went from about a 5 to a 7 right there. With a grunt of slight desperation, I attempted to heft my arm up in front of my face. I could feel it twitching for a while – thank god – before it finally obeyed my command.

A pale skinned hand came into my currently limited field of view, and I tried clenching my newly reacquired limb. It obeyed much faster this time, and I could feel my head start to clear simultaneously, which basically meant the salesman became much more polite with his knocking.

Go away Mr. Salesman, I don't want whatever you're selling.

Now that I was in control of my limbs, I used both of my arms, still slightly numb, to help push me up into a better position. Not entirely sitting up, but making my field of view slightly larger. Blurry brown joined blurry green. Ok, from these clues I can ascertain that I am somewhere with trees. Sherlock would be proud.

Straining my eyes at everything wasn't helping my head, and I could feel the salesman become my frustrated with each knock. Actually that analogy was becoming a bit stale, but my head is too jumbled to think of anything else, so that's all I got. Anyway, why was everything so blurry? It's almost like I needed...

My eyes widened. Glasses! Where were my glasses? With no small amount of effort, I pushed myself off and flipped so that I was facing the grass, which was the only thing I could see clearly at the moment other than my own nose and hands. Frantically, I ran my hands along the immediate area outside of my limited vision, and for a short while all I could feel was the soft wet grass until I felt something hard. Hard and plastic. Letting loose a breath of relief, I dragged the item across the grass.

Once the black plastic frames of my glasses were in clear view, I pushed off the ground with the one hand keeping me up and flipped back into the much more comfortable position of lying on my back. With a slightly shaking hand, I held the unfolded glasses to my face and clumsily put them on.

Although there was grass staining the lenses, I could now clearly tell that my hypothesis on the green above me belonging to leaves was correct. Now that my small quest for my magical seeing device was over, I had expended what little energy I seemed to have at the moment. The gentle sway of the healthily green leaves was calming, and the small amount of light piercing through warmed my face. It was beautiful. I could feel my eyes slowly shutting, all my previous worries seemingly fading away from my mind.

My eyes shut fully, and darkness took me.

A howl in the distance.

My eyes snapped open for the second time that day, and the sight of vibrant green greeted me once more, but this time there was no light illuminating both me and the leaves. Pushing myself up into a sitting position, I looked around hastily, the realization that I was somewhere I don't know, at night, in the _dark_ getting through to my hazy mind. The trunks of the trees around me were massive, and they cast a shadow over the clearing I was in. Ok, I don't know how, but this just went from beautiful to horrifying in an instant.

Another howl.

My head snapped to the direction I heard the chilling noise come from. Was it just me, or was that getting _closer_? Keeping my unblinking, wide, and admittedly panicked looking, eyes in the same direction, I hastily pushed my self to my feet, stumbling a bit more then I would've liked to. For what seemed like an eternity, I stared into the pitch blackness behind the bushes at the edge of the clearing, wondering if I really had heard the sound getting closer, before freezing up.

 _Crunch crunch crunch_

Ok, getting the _fuck_ out of here now.

Spinning around, I bolted forward on shaky legs, and as I reached the edge of the clearing, I heard the crunching of grass behind me become more frantic. Bursting through the bushes gave way to large brown trunks, that astounded me by their size and thickness, even while running. I attempted to swerve around the trees whilst still maintaining my panicked speed. Which caused the lack of lighting, my lack of balance, and just plain old bad luck to culminated in me tripping over an exposed root five trees in, making me fall and gash my right cheek.

"Ah fuck!" I hissed in pain, feeling blood leaking from my new wound. "Fucking shit _fuck_!" The stress of the situation was finally getting to me, and I expressed that quite vocally as I cupped my now injured cheek with one hand.

 _Crunch crunch crunch crunch_

The sound of crunching grass, even faster then before, caused my eyes to widen and me to forget about my cheek and remember that I was indeed running from something at the moment. Stumbling to my feet, panic and anxiety freshly ignited, I sprinted forward again, this time being as mindful as I could be about what was around my feet at that moment. Not looking back for even a moment I continued my mad dash through this – or what I assumed was a - forest, blood still leaking from my cheek, until I spotted some bushes up ahead. Not slowing down whatsoever, I burst through the bushes, feeling my face become more scratched up as I did so.

The impact of the bush caused me to fall forward again, though this time I rolled across the ground. Unlike the last time I fell, I hastily pushed myself back onto my feet. The adrenaline pumping through my system made the scratches on my face feel numb, and as I took in my surroundings in a panic the first thing I saw was a building. A big building. What was a building doing in the middle of a-?

 _Crunch crunch crunch snap!_

 _Ok_ , not the time to look a gift horse in the mouth. I sprinted forward at full speed, colliding hard with a set of steady double doors - _definitely going to feel that tomorrow –_ before pushing through with haste. Once inside, my head swerved from left to right, looking around the small entrance area for something, _anything_ to block the door. When I found nothing in the immediate vicinity, I let out a curse "Fuck!" And half ran- half jogged forward, tripping on the small step leading out of the foyer type area. Just after the entrance, was a corridor that led down into some other room that I was too panicked to make any details out of, and as I jogged down the corridor my eyes came upon a down on the side, the triangle on it bringing relief and joy to my heart.

A bathroom!

I instantly sped towards my new safe haven, tore the door open and pretty much jumped inside, slamming the door shut behind me and turning the lock.

And then everything was silent.

Well, except for my heavy breathing.

But you get the idea.

I rested my back against the brown door , slowly sliding down it as breath after breath came from my chapped lips. I rested the back of my head against the door, the mind inside so exhausted as well that I couldn't even consider what had just happened to me in detail. Through my newly re-acquired haze, I _was_ able to get one thought out before my mind shut down again.

 _'Man, fuck today.'_

And darkness welcomed me for the third time that day.

When my eyes opened, the first thing I realized was that everything _except_ for my head hurt. My back was stiff from the position of me leaning against the door, my shoulder felt like someone had taken a baseball bat to it – okay maybe not a baseball bat. Something hard though; like a decretive candle stick or something. My face felt like needles had been poking it, and my legs felt on fire.

Groaning, I used my good arm, the left one, to push myself up, and for the first time I took in where I was.

It was a bathroom, shockingly. One of those small private ones that you find on the ground floor of a big house, or something like that anyway, with simple white tiles and everything. The toilet was on the opposite wall on my right in all its porcelain white glory, and on the wall opposite it – the one to my left – was a white sink with an average sized mirror above it. Simple, but effective.

After my overly analytical analyses of a bathroom, my legs decided to wobble a bit, which caused me to stumble towards the toilet. I threw myself down onto the seat – which was down – and leaned forward, one hand on my knee and the other cradling my head. I looked down at my bright red shoes, and my black bottoms, stained by grass. I grimaced, that was going to be a pain to get out. My hand moved from my head to my cheek, causing me to flinch backward and sit up straighter. What the hell...?

My mind finally caught up with what had happened, what had _been_ happening, which caused me to stand up and rush towards the mirror, taking in my disheveled appearance. Long brown curly hair covered my head, and as usual it dropped down over my forehead and slightly over my glasses, though not enough to be a nuisance. Speaking of my glasses, the grass stains on their lenses were becoming annoying, so I took them off and cleaned them with my red shirt, before putting them back on, feeling satisfied in my clearer vision.

Now that my lenses were clean, I could clearly see my dull brown eyes. Said eyes trailed one of the many marks on my face, the worst one, right above where my beard started on my cheek. Running a hand through the brown hair on my face to make sure there was no grass stuck in it, I held my cheek up to the mirror to examine it closely. There was dry blood around and slightly below the area, I had better clean that, before it gets infected. That would just be icing on the shit-cake.

I looked down and turned the tap on the sink. Nothing. Furrowing my brow I turned it again, harder this time. Still Nothing. Gritting my teeth in frustration, I used both hands to pull as hard as I could, putting my foot up on the sink for a better grip. I pulled hard for about 10 seconds, before I heard something pop and I flew backwards from the momentum, landing back on the toilet and hitting my head against the wall behind it. Hissing in pain, I held the back of my head, however I felt something cold and metal touch it.

Bringing my hand up to my face, I saw the head of a tap in my hand. The head of the tap I was just pulling on. I was then pulled from my hand by the sound of rumbling pipes, causing me to look towards the sink, and the exposed tap without a head. It rumbled again, harder this time, and my eyes widened.

"Uh oh."

Before I knew it, a jet of water spurted forth, arcing in the air before heading directly for me. I tried to dodge by moving to the side, but given the speed of the stream and the limited space I was confined to, there wasn't much I could do.

It hit me straight in the face.

Gasping in surprise and rage, I scrambled towards the door, running into it when I didn't remember it was locked. Cursing, I unlocked the door, still being pelted by water, and exited the bathroom, slamming the door behind me. Shaking slightly, I wiped my glasses on my shirt, _again_. I wake up in the middle of nowhere with a blinding headache, almost get eaten by some animal, somehow get away, only to hide in a bathroom and get soaked by a water pipe. Yep, totally fine with that, _nothing stressful about that at all._

The hallway I had come out into was wide, wide enough to accommodate many people. I looked across the wall on the other end, seeing multiple bulletin boards and posters clumped together directly across from me. Curiosity peaked, and frustration fading slightly, I trudged over and examined the posters strewn across them. Most of them were the generic motivational posters, like the ones with the cat hanging of the tree with the caption 'hang in there' and other borderline cringe quotes. Some did make me laugh though, allowing me to forget about my anger for the time being.

I was ready to turn away and continue my examination of this dorm, yes it was a dorm; why? Well from the fact that the entrance way that I came through was way too big for a normal house, the fact that the bathroom was labeled as... Oh shit I don't even remember, whatever, and the shit on this bulletin board seems like the type of quotes I saw back in school all the time. I was pretty damn sure this was some kind of dorm, although I could be wrong, I mean I did wake up in the middle of a forest for no reason, my decision making skills might not be the _best_ right now, or in general.

Anyway, I was about to turn away from the group of boards – otherwise known as a band of boards – when I saw something that stood out from the rest. On the edge of the middle board was a small piece of paper that looked like it had been ripped in half, It looked like paper from a notepad of some sort. I leaned in closer, trying to see what it said.

'Rob

Stop eating my _fucking_ yoghurt or I will castrate you

Tiffany'

I blinked, staring at the piece of paper in shock. After a while, I couldn't hold back any more, it started as chuckles, then evolved into full blown laughter. "G-geez Tif," I said as I calmed down, "bit of an over-reaction don'cha think?" I wiped a tear from my eye, my mood thoroughly brightened as I turned around to continue my search. When I turned back around to face the door of the bathroom, I immediately took note that it was, in fact, labeled as male. I don't know why, but this brought a little bit of relief. I looked down the way I came, seeing the double doors that I had wrecked my shoulder on when I entered, causing me to place a hand on said injured shoulder.

Looking down the other way, I found myself not able to see much, as the corridor opened up a little bit further on. When I reached the end, I found myself in what seemed to be a kitchen/foyer area. The closer half to me was the foyer, which had some tables, chairs and a long couch that sat facing a tv that was hung on a wall immediately to my right, a little table in-between them. And may I just say that tv was a decent size, and I wasn't some craftsman that could tell how many inches one was at a glance, but it was at least over 40 inches.

The other half of the room was the kitchen, it had a long sidebar from the end of the room, which went all the way along to the other end. Along this sidebar was: A microwave sat on top, a cooker built in, a dishwasher, multiples draws and cupboards, a kettle that my inner Englishman was happy to see, a toaster, _two_ sinks right next to each other for some reason, just some regular sides with nothing on them, and a fridge at the end.

I don't know why I took in everything in such detail, it wasn't like I was going to be staying here for an extended period of time or anything, but it kept me calm. Like when you're waiting for the doctor and you count the ceiling tiles, or how many pens are in a pot on a desk, or how many people are coming in and leaving _and you just want to get in there and get it over with-_

I shivered, shaking my head to rid myself of the thoughts, now was not the time. Current problems now, lingering problems _later_.

I took a few steps into the foyer, stepping behind the couch and sitting on the edge of the back, towards the kitchen. I let out a breath, then took another look around. I was a nice place, clean looking. Which didn't make sense, because I was starting to think this place was abandoned. I mean, I hadn't been silent the entire time I'd been here; my frazzled entrance, the admittedly louder then needed laughter. If someone was here, they should've come down to check on what was going on. The door was unlocked as well, and if I lived in a forest which possibly had wolves and bears in it, you sure as hell bet I'm going to keep that door locked at all times, _especially_ if no one was in. So it was either this dorm was run _entirely_ by deaf people, or this place was abandoned.

And this kitchen supported the first theory more than the second, surprisingly.

Everything was neat and tidy, no dust, no grime, no nothing. I even walked up and ran my finger atop the counter, holding it up to my face afterwards; nothing. I opened up draws, either empty or cutlery in place and clean. I opened up cupboards, either empty or everything in place, barely anything weird to be seen, which was weird in itself. I looked around again, this time I saw something as I was looking at the appliances on top of the counter.

The outlets had only two holes, and the plugs were shaped to match.

My face paled.

I lived in _England,_ all the plugs there had _three_ prongs instead of two. Everywhere in the UK, hell most places in Europe had three prongs. Ok, ok calm down, this doesn't mean I'm in a different _country_ or anything, it could just be a new house design, more American than European. My breathing, which had started to speed up, slowed down again. Yeah, yeah, I just need to find somewhere to tell me where I was. I was worrying over some silly plugs, I needed to stop overreacting about things.

I let out a slightly strained chuckle and shook my head, causing me to spot something out of the corner of my eyes. Turning away from the kitchen – or kitchenette? - I looked towards the hallway I had come from, exiting the foyer area. Just past it, was a staircase, and just past that was another door. The sign above the door said 'Emergency exit', so I'm guessing that it either lead outside, or to some sort of secret bunker. I wasn't ready to take that risk though.

My eyes turned to the stairs, and I took a deep breath before letting it out slowly. Time to continue my reluctant, tense and not all that fun adventure. I started up the stairs, climbing the first set before turning and climbing the second. Once I had reached the top, two things were apparent to me: there was another wide hallway, and there were two doors on either wall, with one at the end. This hallway, in comparison to the one downstairs, was surprisingly plain. No posters, not bulletin boards, which was surprising given that this was probably where people's rooms were located.

I let out another breath, this was where I would _really_ get answers. Downstairs was generic, something you would see anywhere. If I was going to find anything to tell me where I was, it was in these rooms. I walked over to the closest grey door, grabbing the handle. Taking a deep breath, I pushed forward.

…

Locked.

Ok, that's alright, four more doors.

I walked to the next one. Locked. Two more. Next one. Locked. Ok, getting annoying. Second to last one... _Fucking locked._ I was starting to get pretty frustrated as I walked up to the last door, grabbing the handle and pushing way harder than I should've, causing the door to fly open and me to fall forward face first onto the floor. My face met brown carpet, and I let out a muffled growl. Fuck my life. Pushing myself up, I let my eyes roam around the room that I now found myself in, rubbing my nose and grumbling.

The walls were a pale colour, and I was already acquainted with the brown carpeted floor. I turned to my left and saw a small single bed in the corner, which I could see had a wooden frame. The cover was a plain brown, and it was neatly made. There was also a small wooden shelf above it, which had multiple books of varying titles that I wasn't interested enough in to bother reading. Turning to my right I found a small tv sat on a stand, with a beanbag chair a few feet in front of it.

I took another step into the room, my eyes once again shifting to another corner. In this one was something _much_ more interesting, and once I layed eyes on it, a small smile broke out onto my face. In the top right hand corner. next to a window not that far away, was a small computer set up, with a swivel chair and everything. The desk was a light brown, and had a draw and a cupboard on one leg, and a bigger cupboard on the other, it also had the usual small space for a keyboard. It was somewhat surprising, given how conservative the room had been, but hell if I was complaining.

I cleared the small space between me and the computer in two small strides, just now realizing how small this room really was. It was basically a damn box. Sitting down in the chair, I pushed forward, looking up into the black monitor. I bent down under the desk and took a look at what I was working with. A black box met me. I grit my teeth, looking for the power button, also checking to see if everything was plugged in. It was, good. I found the power button located on the back of the computer. Weird, but I wasn't a computer expert, so I just held it down and prayed.

'Please work, please work, please work!'

I took my finger off the button, and was rewarded with the button lighting up and the sound of a fan coming on. I pumped my fist, giving a small "Yes!" However, as I lifted my head back up my excitement got the better of me.

SMACK "Shit!"

Sitting back up properly, I contemplated why my head had taken so much abuse lately as I rubbed the back of it for what felt like the tenth time that day. The monitor turning distracted me, however, and my good mood came back in full force. I pulled the keyboard out of its small compartment and set it on the desk, hitting the space-bar. The black lit screen changed colour, bringing me to a plain blue background. Again, whoever owned this room was definitely more on the conservative side. There was only one account on the computer, and this belonged to a ' .'

'Not Rob or Tiffany?' I thought with some amusement, also taking note that this account didn't have a profile picture, and was just a grey outline of a human head. Taking the mouse positioned next to the keyboard into my hand, and quickly dragged it back and forth across the mouse-pad to make the cursor appear. Dragging the cursor over to the account icon, I mumbled "C'mon, no password," before clicking.

And being brought straight to the desktop.

Another fist pump "Everything's coming up Milhouse!" It really wasn't, but in situations like these, you had to take the small victories or you'd go insane. I now took to examining the desktop. Wait, I didn't know any of these icons. No google chrome on the task-bar, no internet explorer, nor word. The fuck was this? Was I in china or something, and these were the Chinese versions of their applications? I pushed down the frustration I was feeling, at least the background was nice. It was of some castle or something, with a large clock-tower in the middle. For some reason it looked familiar to me, but I shook off the feeling, probably wouldn't help even if I knew.

I looked all over, trying to see if I could discern what each program did just through the picture alone. Starting in the corner was the start button, moving along the task-bar was some sort of globe, that must've been the internet browser, next was some sort of black box which I couldn't tell the function of, next was...

Oh helllloooooo...

Along the task-bar was something that looked like a notebook, from which I could tell that it was a writing software. What was more interesting to me, however, was the fact that It had a lighter shade box around it than the rest of the icons. I hurriedly brought the cursor over to the icon and clicked it, this caused something similar to a word document to appear on my screen. It was seriously like for like, just with a different logo and colour.

I could tell from the bar at the side that the document was at its end, so for the sake of not confusing myself with whatever I was about to read, I brought it to the top and blinked a few times, and started to read.

 _'January 15_ _th_ _2014_

 _I am professor Vert Baker of Beacon academy, and I have been chosen to guide and look after four teams specially chosen to stay in this new prototype dorm located in the emerald forest._

 _The purpose of this experiment is to test a new defensive mechanism designed to keep to keep the Grimm out, as any good defence is designed to do. This new design was made by the atlus military with extensive help from Headmaster Ozpin of Beacon. From what I have been informed, the basic gist of this new device is that it draws the innate Aura found in trees, plants, grass and even animals somewhat, to generate a shield around the dorm and the immediate vicinity. This shield is special in this case, however, because the only thing that cannot pass through it are Grimm. Ozpin himself explained to me that dew to Aura being the natural opposite of the Grimm, which I already knew, It also creates a cloaking device that blocks out Grimm from detecting negative emotions._

 _When the headmaster explained to me the innate theory behind the device, he then told me that he needed a way to test it. I knew that he had wanted me to help, otherwise he would've called more than just me to his office. I was hesitant at first, expressing the risk not only to myself, but to my students also. Headmaster Ozpin, as he usually does, put my fears to rest almost instantly. Telling me the greatest minds in atlus had extensively researched and painstakingly constructed, de-constructed and re-constructed the device that would sit under the dorm, and there would be safety precaution after safety precaution to make sure that not one of the students would come to harm._

 _He said it with such authority, such certainty, that it put my heart at ease, and I agreed then on the spot. After he had thanked me, he gestured to a scientist that been in the room throughout our discussion, telling me that if I had any more questions to ask, that this man would answer them, before dismissing me._

 _Once me and this man had ridden the elevator down, I decided to ask a small question about food and power, and how they would be assigned to the dorm. Big mistake, because when he started talking, he didn't stop. He went on and on, some of what he spouted useful, but most inane technobabble that I had no idea of. I found out that the aura supplied to the dorm would also power all the daily appliances as well as the shield, but other than that I can't remember anything he said._

 _I was about ready to kill the man before the bell signalling next classes saved my – and his- life, and I was able to politely excuse myself._

 _I have just moved in today, and the students have already settled down in their rooms. I am keeping this log not just for the scientists sake, but for my own as well. I mean, if this works it would be revolutionary, a way to expand beyond our walls, to not fear the Grimm out in the badlands. This could be the next big step for humanity._

 _Let's hope it is._

 _-Professor Vert Baker; Log 1'_

I leaned back in my chair, eyes wide and hands clenched around the arm rests. My face was undoubtedly pale and my breathing was speeding up by the second. Beacon? Ozpin? _Grimm_!? I knew those words, _of course_ I knew those words. They were words I had read many times, and heard spoken many times also. But there's _no way_ I'm... No, I couldn't be...

Was I in RWBY?

My breathing kept speeding up, and I could feel my chest start to hurt, along with a tightness around my nose. Tears appeared in my eyes, before my sadness and shock turned to anger and frustration.

"Fuck," I let out under my breath, before it escalated into a shout, "FUCK!" I let out, standing from my chair and swinging my leg into the desk at full force. Turns out its stronger then my leg though, because it just ended up with a perfectly fine table, and me hoping around on one leg screaming obscenities. What did happen however, was the cupboard was jolted open, and I above my creaming, I heard something that sounded like glass fall out and land on the carpeted floor.

Turning my angry eyes to whatever would dare interrupt my cursing, I found a glass bottle laying on the ground, with what seemed to be liquid in it. It looked almost full, and the label on it was facing me.

'Atlus grape wine'

Without a second thought, I bent down, grabbed the bottle and uncorked it, knocking it back straight into my mouth. It was lukewarm, which made me gag at first, but eventually it went down easy and I started to enjoy the burn at the back of my throat. Taking another swig, I half stumbled back towards the bed in the other corner of the room, sitting down on the edge and taking yet another swig.

Eventually, the lack of food in my stomach and my general tiredness helped the alcohol kick in, and I leant back onto the bed after taking yet _another_ swig. Bottle still in hand, I held the other up to my forehead, moving it down to cover my eyes.

"What have you gotten yourself into, Frankie?" I mumbled, before I lost consciousness.

 ***Warning, long authors note ahead, skip if you want***

 **What's up, my dear readers? I think thats going to be my thing now, or not who knows.**

 **Anyway, I wanted to write something like this eventually, and I have so many ideas about where this story could go, I just had to get this first chapter out. Chapter two is going to be awesome, let me tell you. That's where things are** _ **really**_ **going to get interesting.**

 **I kinda wanted to make this authors note like some sort of retrospective about the chapters, what was fun to write, what I struggled with, all that stuff. Mostly so I can look back later and see my progress, cause I'm all about improvement, but also for anybody who would want to read this.**

 **So I had writer's block on this chapter for the longest time, and I debated about when to end it, but I wanted to have a hook, something the reader will want to find out more about, because I couldn't just write a boring chapter and then say 'oh but chapter two is gonna be** _ **way**_ **more interesting, just wait' y'know? And I think I somewhat succeeded, however if you disagree, and want to express this in a constructive way, feel free. I'm all ears to criticism.**

 **I also wanted to ask you guys' opinion on the main character, I tried to get his personality across without outwardly stating a lot of things, and I wanted to know, what do** _ **you**_ **think he's like. If he's too bland to tell, then express that as well, and I'll definitely try to improve later down the line. I enjoy reading reviews more than anything, because that's how we all improve as writers, as anything really.**

 **Anyway, have a great day, and look forward to the next chapter!**

 **Your author, Zakku.**


	2. James Flare just wants a peaceful life

**Duality**

 **Chapter 2**

 **James Flare just wants a peaceful life.**

Light streamed through the window of a certain dorm room, illuminating four beds neatly arranged into a line. Two of them contained heads of red hair, though of varying shade and length. The other two, contained both a head of dark hair with a pink highlight, and a bright blonde mop. For a small while, nothing moved, and the only sound that was heard was the chirping of birds outside the window. Until, suddenly, one of the heads of hair moved. It was the darker red head that sluggishly raised itself from its velveteen comfort, blinking her bright green eyes to rid herself of the grogginess.

Pyrrha Nikos stretched her arms above her head, bringing them forward and cracking her fingers in front of her face. She sighed, now rid of the sluggishness that came with early mornings. She had always woken up early, she wasn't the invincible girl for nothing, but the slow start was something that she could never break. Pyrrha turned so that her legs were off the side of her bed and reached for her scroll, which was sitting on the nightstand next to her bed. Checking the time, which was 4:00, about an hour before her alarm usually went off, Pyrrha took a quick glance at the rest of her teammates; making sure they hadn't been accidentally awoken by the start of her early morning routine.

Nora was snoring loudly as always, her mouth open and a small amount of drool leaking onto the pillow she had her head buried into. This caused a smile to grace Pyrrha's face, and she had to hold a hand to her mouth to quiet her giggles. Next she looked towards Ren, who was in the bed next to Nora. Ren was sleeping in the healthiest position for his back, with his face directed at the ceiling. Even the way he slept expressed his calm nature, with the serene look on his face.

Lastly, she looked to the mop of blonde hair facing away from her, her eyes lingering on it longer than both of the other two combined, before she shook her head and finally exited her bed. Standing up, Pyrrha tuned around and made her bed, another part of her routine, before tip-toeing towards the shower. Not that she probably would have been heard over Nora's snoring, but she was much too polite to risk it anyway. Opening the door to the bathroom in the most careful way possible, she slipped in seamlessly. Pyrrha exhaled through her nose, walking over to the shower and turning it on. She had worked out the exact number of turns of each tap to make the shower weeks ago.

Two turns of the cold, three and a half of the hot.

Feeling the shower with her hands, Pyrrha confirmed the temperature, before starting to disrobe. She had almost gotten to the last button on her brown pajama shirt, when she heard the bathroom door open behind her. Covering herself on reflex – hadn't she locked that door!? - Pyrrha turned around with startled eyes.

"Oh, you were in here Pyrrha? Sorry, I just walked in without thinking. Mornings, am I right?" A sweet and smooth voice greeted her. This voice belonged to the tall blonde young man that had just walked in the door. His eyes were a sky blue, and he was a good head or two taller than her, with a sharp face and a scar just below his eye. He wasn't wearing a shirt, and just had a pair of plain brown pajama bottoms on, thus causing his broad chest and muscles to be exposed. His words _sounded_ genuine, but from the amused glint in his eyes Pyrrha could tell that he didn't mean a word.

"J-James!" She squeaked, tightening her grip around her chest, "What are you doing here, get out!" She said this with slight hesitation, and from the way his lips turned upwards, he had caught on too.

"Oh?" He started, holding a hand up to his exposed chest "I just thought that since it's summer, we need to conserve all the water we can, so I came up with a _brilliant_ idea." As he continued his sentence, he slowly walked closer, until he was right next to Pyrrha, "Do you want to hear it?" He whispered, stopping right next to her.

Pyrrha's face was firetruck red at this point, and she was so flustered that all that could come out of her mouth was hot air.

"I'll take that as a 'yes'" 'James' said quietly, "My brilliant plan was that we could _share_ a shower." He leaned in closer, his eyes never leaving hers. It probably wasn't possible for Pyrrha's face to get any redder at that point, "Don't you want to, Pyrrha?"

 _'You want to'_

Pyrrha's eyes, which had been impossibly wide before, closed slightly, becoming half lidded. Her eyes glazed over slightly, and her face became much less red. "Yesss." She let out, sounding almost wistful. Their faces were right next to each other at this point, and 'James's' smirk grew once again.

"Good." He whispered, leaning in and pushing his lips against hers.

* * *

James Flare wanted the perfect life, and that was all there was to it.

He had been working painstakingly hard over the last two years to make that happen, and he was proud of his progress. As he stepped out of the team JNPR bathroom, fully clothed in a black and white ensemble, James reflected on his progress thus far. When he had woken up in the world of Remnant, he had been scared and confused, as anybody would be, until he had actually found out _where_ he was. He had woken up down a back ally in Vale, sitting against the wall with a massive headache. He had walked around aimlessly for a few hours, not knowing what city he was in, or even what _country_.

That is until he had spotted a newspaper stand, which baffled him even now as to why they still existed in this world, that expressed in detail where he was, and when he was. He remembered reaching for the paper, and then being yelled at by the shopkeeper for not having any money. That hadn't been the best experience...

 _Voices behind him. Mocking laughter._

Moving on from that, he had instantly recognized most of the things being referenced to in the paper, the most stand-out one being Beacon, but it even mentioned things like the SDC and even the docks somewhat. What one might have expected the reaction to be for something like this, would be something along the lines of James's horror growing, however...

James had not felt so excited in his entire life.

He'd eat, slept and drank RWBY since the first season came out, he'd re-watched seasons 1-3 a million times, and season 4 wasn't far behind. He'd read fanfic after fanfic, and he knew characters better than they probably knew _themselves,_ he could help change so much, and his elated mood was amplified after he had walked next to a puddle and caught his own reflection.

He was absolutely _gorgeous._ Bright blonde hair, bright blues eyes, radiant smile, he was even _tall_ – he'd later measured himself, and he was about six foot three – he was so pretty now that he didn't even want to _think_ about what he had looked like before.

 _Laughter growing louder. Hide away, darkness wont hurt you._

Before he could finish his musing, James was interrupted from his thoughts by the sound of something shifting, and his previously unfocused eyes focused onto the now moving form of Lie Ren. His pink haired teammate rose from his bed with grace undeserving of someone who had just woken up, and rubbed his eyes.

James plastered on his usual easy-going smile, "Morning."

Ren's eyes wandered over to him, before relaxing and giving a small smile back, "Morning to you too."He looked towards the bathroom door, "Pyrrha in there, I'm guessing?"

James nodded his head, smile still in place, "Yep, she let me go in first though, even though she woke up first," He shook his head, "She's too polite sometimes, but I guess that's just Pyrrha." He shifted his smile into a fond one.

Ren nodded his head "I would say I'm next, but we both know I cant guarantee that if Nora wakes up anytime between now and when Pyrrha's finished." He turned fond eyes to the snoring red head still in her bed.

It hadn't been easy keeping his relationship with Pyrrha from his teammates, Ren was perceptive, and Nora was eerily so sometimes, in contrast with her personality. But they couldn't find out, not yet, he had plans that needed to come to fruition before anyone found out anything. Becoming the leader of team JNPR had been laughably easy, all he had had to do was send an anonymous letter to the headmaster, saying that a certain blonde candidate's transcripts were somewhat on the _illegal_ side, and that was it. From then on, he just lived the life of Jaune Arc, and everything fell into place, even though he was ten times more attractive. He'd even chosen his name so that team JNPR would stay the same.

It was just another requirement for a perfect life.

James walked over to his bedside, grabbing his scroll and putting it in the back pocket of his jeans. Turning to Ren, he said, "I'm going for a walk, I'll meet you guys at our first class, Port right?"

Ren nodded "Yeah, See you then."

James nodded back with a smile, before walking over and exiting through the door. Once it was closed behind him, he let the smile drop into a blank expression. Yes, Lie Ren _had_ been a problem, but not just because of his perceptiveness.

He had been a problem, because with him there, he couldn't touch Nora at all.

Ren was an ever watchful eye, and he seemed to literally keep one eye on Nora the entire time they had been at Beacon. He knew this would be the case, however it was one of those things that no amount of preparation could help with, they had grown up on the road together after all. If he _did_ try anything with Nora, he was pretty sure Ren's added involvement would foil his plans entirely.

And Ren was too close to everyone to... _get rid of_.

James let out a sigh as he exited the dorm, now was not the time to be thinking of failures, not when the rest of his plan was going so well. Speaking of, he had started taking these walks not for the early morning activity, but for another reason, a reason that was currently standing in front of the dorm looking up at the morning sky.

Beautiful white hair swayed gently in the breeze, and with the soft glow of the morning sun illuminating her eyes, and the way she was all dressed in white, she really did look like an angel. For a while he stood behind her, admiring her beauty as she was admiring the morning sun, but then he spoke.

"Good morning, Weiss."

Startled blue eyes turned towards him, before softening somewhat at the site of him, "Good morning to you too, Flare."

James let out a chuckle, "I thought I already told you, call me James, we're friends aren't we?"

Weiss's eyes widened momentarily at her slip up, before the look on her face transitioned to disappointment. "I suppose we are, aren't we? My apologies, it's just that _he_ always made sure I was polite to every-"

"But your fathers not here right now," James cut her off, "I am."

Weiss turned her eyes back to the sky with a complicated look on her face "I'm sorry," she apologized again. And for a while there was silence, Weiss trying to get her thoughts in check, and James waiting for what he knew would come. Weiss sighed "I've always woken up this early since I was a little girl, my father made sure of it." She held her right arm, "He would always go on and on about it being 'the first step to diligence' and about how 'diligence was part of what made a Schnee a Schnee'," Weiss tightened her grip on her arm "I've never been able to break the habit, which is somewhat backwards given that most people would think this is an advantage, but I haven't been able to get the idea out of my head that this isn't _me_ , that this is a _Schnee_ thing and not a _Weiss_ thing." Weiss sounded more troubled by the second, and she hadn't seemed to notice how tight her hold on her arm had been getting.

James let those words sink in for a moment, going over them in his head word by word, before inspiration struck him, and a smile graced his face.

"Want to know what I think?"

Almost as if she had forgotten he was there, Weiss turned to him in surprise, which spurred him on to continue "I think that _Weiss_ is a hardworking, intelligent huntress in training, who is always willing to improve herself." He stressed the lack of using her last name "She is always bettering herself and is eager to learn new things."

Weiss looked confused. "I appreciate the compliments, but what does that have to do with anything?"

James's smile almost turned almost predatory as he started to walk forward _hook "_ Because waking up early is a _part_ of that, a part of the eagerness to prove yourself, and to learn. You're waking up early for _you_ not for your father, or anyone else," _Line,_ "At Beacon, waking up early isn't part of what makes a Schnee a Schnee, it's part of what makes Weiss, _Weiss._ " _And sinker._

Weiss eyes were wide as he approached her, and wrapped his arms around her in a supportive hug. At first she was stiff, but loosened up after a while and returned the hug. "Why is it that you always know what to say?" She mumbled into his chest, causing his smile over her head to become a little _too_ wide.

"Because you let me get to know a _wonderful_ girl Weiss." He said, before letting his face fall into her hair, "Better than you know yourself." He whispered into her head, just quite enough for her not to hear.

Just more steps towards a perfect life.

* * *

Ruby Rose had mixed feelings about Professor Port's lessons. On the one hand the _subject_ wasn't really the problem. She was being taught how to be a super-awesome super-powered heroic huntress, after all. No, the subject was _awesome,_ however when it came to Peter Port...

"And so, I tackled the beast to the ground, regardless for my state of undress. I tell you, the beast wasn't the only monster out in the open that afternoon! HA HA!"

...He could even make killing Grimm sound boring.

And slightly uncomfortable.

Ruby sighed, putting her hand up to her cheek, and leaning against her elbow. Port wasn't the master of storytelling he thought he was, and looking around the room, Ruby could see that almost everyone in the class agreed with her. Immediately to her right, her sister Yang Xiao-Long was face down on her desk, and she had been for the last half hour.

Next to her was Blake, who _looked_ like she was diligently reading a textbook, but if you stood behind her you would see that her Faunus teammate was just using the book as a cover. What she was actually reading was probably either something _like_ ninjas of love, or ninjas of love. Ruby never understood Blake's fascination with those books, but she always looked happy when she read them, Yang even said she looked 'a little _too_ happy' one time.

Whatever that meant.

Ruby leaned forward more, until she could see the last member of her team at the end of the desk. Her partner, Weiss Schnee. She was one of the reasons why it was 'almost' everyone, as she was regularly jotting down notes with a small smile on her face. What was weird was when the rest of the team had woken up this morning, she was already out of bed, and came back 10 minutes after in a chipper mood. When Ruby had asked what had made her so happy, as any good partner would, she had been tight-lipped about her sudden good mood.

Ruby rested her head on the desk and pouted, giving Weiss a totally not-sulking look, which the white-haired girl was oblivious to. When they had first met, Weiss had been, well, kind of a meanie. She had shouted a lot, called her a kid, and all these other means things, but after a while they had started to get along, and things became... Better. But there was still this space between them, and sometimes Ruby just didn't know what to do.

She wanted to be friends, right? Then why did she still keep so much to herself?

Ruby sighed again, moving her eyes away from Weiss. No point in making herself feel sad for no reason. She let her eyes focus past Weiss, and to someone that made her cheeks flare up. James. He was the other reason she said almost everyone, with him diligently writing away, a look of concentration on his face. Ruby tried to keep her cheeks under control, if Yang saw who she was looking at, and _how_ she was looking at them, she wouldn't hear the end of it.

Ruby could remember the day they first met, which was coincidentally the first day of beacon, with a fond smile.

" _Need help?" She heard above her, a gloved hand coming into her view with, which had previously been on the ground. Ruby quickly wiped the tears that were in her eyes, and looked up._

 _Bright blue eyes looked into hers, and a pleasant white smile greeted her. He had bright blonde hair, and was dressed in a tight fitting black shirt, which showed his muscles off, not that Ruby was looking or anything!_

 _"Hello?" He asked, his smile turning slightly mischievous, "My eyes are up here y'know?" Ruby's face turned bright red, and her face snapped up to his._

 _"U-uh I-I," she stammered, holding the end of her hood in one hand. The boy tilted his head, then wiggled his fingers, and Ruby's eyes snapped to his outstretched hand "Uh, yeah sure." She grabbed the hand and let him pull her up. Ruby dusted down her skirt, before looking back at the pretty boy that had just helped her._

 _He still had a smile on his face, but this time he had his hand held out in front of him "You alright?" She managed a nod "Good, hate to see a pretty girl looking sad." Ruby's face lit up, and she looked at the hand now extended towards her, and for a while she didn't even know what to do, before she realized that is was a handshake and she hesitantly grasped it in her much smaller hand. "James, James Flare."_

 _"Ruby Rose."_

The ringing of a bell snapped Ruby back to reality, and she lifted her head up to see Port reluctantly cutting off his story. "Ah, it seems my time has ended, but do not worry my students, we will continue the story of the bathhouse incident next time. Have a wonderful rest of the day, and remember, never leave home without duct tape! HA HA!"

She got up from her seat and looked towards her teammates, seeing that Yang was lifting her head up with sleep in her eyes. Weiss and Blake were diligently packing their books away, though Ruby caught Blake slipping her preferred choice of literature into her bag secretly. Ruby stretched, bringing her mind back to Weiss. If she couldn't think of another way to deal with her, then she would just confront her! As Blake pulled Yang's sleepy form up from her seat, Ruby quickly followed Weiss as she walked towards the door.

As they exited the classroom, Ruby quickly called out to her, "Weiss!"

Weiss gave a sigh which Ruby hoped was more fond than exasperated, turning around to face her "What is it, Ruby? You do know we have a lesson about five minutes from now?" Weiss had a hand on her hip, and Ruby recognized that she was a finger wag away from her lecturing pose. She had to tread carefully.

"I was wondering.." Ruby started, ringing her hands in front of her. C'mon, say it! Darn you social anxiety! "What you were getting up to in the morning."

Weiss's eyes became half-lidded, "Really, Ruby?" Weiss sighed again, "If you _must_ know, I always take walks in the morning, it's just that _you_ are usually in bed that early, contrary to my efforts..." Weiss was about to continue, finger wagging in full effect, but she stopped herself when a sour look came over her face, "It's... just something I've done for ages, nothing weird, especially when compared to you." A teasing smile came onto her face, causing Ruby to pout, and with that Weiss turned around and walked down the hallway.

Ruby watched her go, pout still present on her face. She wasn't any less confused about what was going on with Weiss...

"Something wrong?"

Ruby startled at the voice behind her. Spinning around, her eyes met a smile she was all too familiar with, "Oh, hey James. It's nothing, just team troubles, y'know?"

James raised his eyebrow, "But I thought things were getting better between you and Weiss, finally." Ruby sighed and turned back around.

"Well yeah, they have. But it's just that she keeps all these things from us, from me, and sometimes I feel so clueless as to what she's feeling. I know I can't expect her to open up all at once, but it's frustrating y'know? Makes me fell like a bad partner sometimes." Ruby frowned, still looking into the direction Weiss had left, until she felt arms wrap around her shoulders, causing her to blush "James-!"

"Shh, no one's here." Ruby looked around and saw that the hallway was indeed empty, except from them, "You are one of the best partners someone could ask for," Ruby's blush intensified "The fact that you always feel that you're not doing enough is a double edged sword though. It's shows you care so so so much, but it makes it hard to accept when things are going slowly. But you're making progress, Ruby. I saw that conversation between you and Weiss, and I also saw the little teasing smile near the end. A few months ago, I didn't even think Weiss was capable of acting like that around anyone, but she is _now_. Just give her some time and I'm sure you guys will be best friends." Ruby then felt lips on the top of her head, which caused her face to feel like the sun itself. "Now turn that frown upside down..."

"…I just hate to see a pretty girl looking sad."

* * *

It had been a good day for James, better than normal. And as he walked towards his dorm room, he took part is one of his favorite pass times- reflecting. The morning shower with Pyrrha, the morning talk with Weiss, the hallway heart to heart with Ruby. Moments like those usually only came around once in a while, and certainly not all in one day. Usually things were more subtle when it came to day to day, compliments here, offers of support there. Gaining trust, becoming liked, then when moments like these came along, why not talk to your friend James? He was always there, supporting you, why would this be any different?

 _It's mid game now_ he thought _all the small interactions are adding up, and more events are coming into place, soon things will reach their climax, and everything will fall into place. The perfect climax._

The perfect ending.

As James was about to enter his own team's dorm room, he was interrupted by the room opposite his opening up. James turned around, and caught a certain black haired girl, with a certain black bow on top leaving the room. When beautiful orange eyes looked up to him, his smile was already in place.

"Hey Blake."

She gave a small smile back, "Hey James." She closed the door behind her, and then there was silence.

The thing with Blake was that she enjoyed silence, not that she despised the opposite, but she appreciated spaces between talking, ones where you could take everything in. It's why she read so many books, but never borrowed any from the library, she appreciated the time to take in every chapter, and silence in the library was golden to her. The first time he had met her, all he had to do was take a book she was familiar with, and sit down and read it silently. Eventually, she realized who he was and which team he was on, and it sparked something.

The docks were where the real fire was lit.

It was so much easier to work your way into people's hearts when you know when life changing events will take place.

Well it's not like there was much to take in about their conversation so, he'd better say something, "Going somewhere?"

Blake's bow twitched "Why so curious?" James raised an eyebrow. "Ok, dumb question. You do know I wouldn't run away like that again though, right?" She looked worried, ashamed, and exasperated all at once. James held his hands up with a complicating look on his face.

Blake turned her head away and sighed, "You remember Sun?"

"Monkey faunus who couldn't stop hitting on you?"

"Same one." Blake nodded, "Well, he asked me, just before everything at the Docks... happened, if I would go on a date with him when I wasn't so 'busy'," Blake's bow twitched again, "I was... Agitated at the time, and to be honest I just wanted him to shut up. So I answered with something along the lines of 'For the love of Oum, if it'll get you to shut up then yes!'."

James didn't like where this was going, and his smile didn't exactly reach his eyes anymore, "Bit wordy for you, ain't it?" Blake shot him a flat look, "And I'm guessing he took that literally?"

Blake nodded, clear exasperation in her expression, "Only he would."

"Then are you going?"

Blake moved her eyes to down the hallway, "If it was anyone else, I'd probably say no, but it's just that he helped me so much. I owe him this at least."

"Not if you don't want to go."

Blake looked towards him, seeing the concerned expression he had formed on his face, "I appreciate the concern, I really do, but it's just Sun, he's harmless." With a small smile and a nod, Blake walked down the hallway, eventually turning a corner and leaving his line of sight.

James's expression dropped, his eyes became dull and his expression neutral. Sun Wukong: Monkey faunus, blond, exchange student, can't remember where from. Team: SSSN, Partner: Neptune, other two irrelevant. Caught a ride early, team not here. Alone. No contacts outside of Blake and him. Did this happen in the show? No, popular ship, would've been a fan favorite episode, troubling.

Summary: Disposable.

* * *

Sun Wukong couldn't believe his luck, even with his overly optimistic attitude when it came to women. Not only had he secured a date with one of the hottest, nicest and all around _best_ girls he had ever met, but when he had dropped her off at the station and asked about whether or not she would be interested in a _second_ date she had said 'she'd think about it'. With a _smile_ on her face!

Sun practically _skipped_ down the alley way, though skipping wasn't for men, and he was a manly man! Sun slowed his _walk_ and coughed into his fist, turning around to make sure no one had seen him and his totally _manly_ walking.

" _So,_ you and Blake, huh?"

Sun jumped with a totally _manly_ sound of surprise, turning around to spot a lone figure coming out of the shadows at the other end of the alleyway. He had a hat on, and a long trench coat buttoned all the way down. Sun moved his hands to his belt, where his nun chucks were holstered behind his back. He wasn't about to let some guy try and rob him.

The guy saw him reach behind his back, and took a step backwards, "Hey, hey dude," he took his hat off and a familiar bright blonde head of hair was exposed, only second to his own blonde hair, "It's just me, calm down."

Sun moved his hands from behind his back, and slumped forward, hands on his knee, "Oh dear Oum. James, don't _do_ that man. I thought I was gonna get robbed or somethin'" Sun quickly realized the way he probably looked right now, so he straightened himself up in a flash and coughed into his fist, "Not that I couldn't _totally_ have handled anyone if it came to that." Sun then proceeded to make poses, making cool noises to accentuate his butt-kicking abilities.

James's smile widened "I'm sure that's true."

Sun looked to James in confusion, "Soooo, what are you doing here? Not that I don't appreciate seeing ya, it's just that it's," Sun took a look at his scroll, "nine o'clock, and we're currently in an alleyway."

"Like I said, you and Blake, huh?" James's smile hadn't changed the entire time, and Sun had to admit it was a little creepy.

"Yep!" Was Sun's chipper reply, excitement coming back full force at the mention of his date with Blake, "It was awesome dude, we went to-"

"I know where you went." James held up a hand, cutting Sun off before he could get _too_ excited, "I followed you." At Sun's confused look, and slightly open mouth, James continued, "Blake told me that you _actually_ got her to say yes to a date, and no offence but other than the docks, I don't know you that well, so I was just making sure you were good for here. Oum knows that girl deserves it."

"So that's the deal with the whole detective get up?" James nodded, smile _still_ in place, "Ah, dude no worries, you were just looking out for your friend, I woulda done the same." Hell, he had done sometimes for Neptune. Sun walked forward, stopping beside his fellow blonde and placing a hand on his shoulder, "But have no fear bro, I'd rather eat my own foot than do anything to hurt Blake. You don't have to worry, I'll treat her right." He may have been assuming a lot after just one date, but he meant every word.

Sun looked James in the eye, receiving a nod and nodding back in return. Patting his friend's shoulder, Sun took off past him and further down the alleyway.

"You see, Sun, that's just the problem."

Pain. Coursing, _stinging_ , pain shot through Sun's head, causing him to collapse to his knees and grasp it with both hands "Wha-argh!" Before he could let out any shouts of pain, a hand came up from behind and covered his mouth, muffling any noise.

"Ah-ah-ah, you don't want to make any unnecessary noises now, do you Sun?"

'You don't want to'

After the hand pulled away, all the noise Sun could make, despite the agonizing pain, were small grunts. Sun dropped forward and writhed around silently, somehow being able to focus the sound of footsteps despite his head felling like someone was trying to pry it open. The footsteps stopped in front of him, and Sun was able to look up in pain.

And look right into the blank face of his friend.

"I didn't want to do this, Sun." His tone was neutral, or completely void of emotions seemed more accurate, "To be honest, you didn't come into my plans at all, you were so _insignificant_ in the show, until season four that is, but by then things would have changed so much that you would've _stayed_ insignificant." James looked straight into his eyes, seeing the pained and confused expression in them, "I know that look, you want to know _why_ , well I'll tell you what, given all that you've helped Blake with, and the fact I've been _itching_ to share my genius, you'll not only get the _why_ , but the _how_."

James crouched down until he was right next to Sun's face, "I owe you that much at least." He whispered, with wide eyes that still somehow looked emotionless. He distanced himself slightly and took a deep breath, "Everyone has a goal, something they strive for. Some want material wealth, others strength. Parental approval, revenge, _love,_ in every human being there is an end goal, something they feel will make their life complete, give it meaning. Most fail, and they have to fill their lives with small meaningless things, to stop themselves giving up and taking the easy way out." James took a breath, his expression manic, "The minority succeed, and their life's goal is achieved, and they can feel proud knowing that they accomplished what they set out to do. But it still goes backwards, eventually the hole will need to be filled, and they will fall into the same habits that the ones who failed have.

"In both situations, it isn't the _goal_ that gave their life meaning, it's the _journey_ , that is what allows them to wake up in the morning, the thought that this day is _one step closer_ to their goal. Me? I think that both situations are equally as stupid, no what I want is a goal that is as just as satisfying achieved as it is not, the perfect journey, _and the perfect ending_." The confusion in Sun's eyes was growing, and so was the pain, as blood was starting to leak out of his ears, "I knew you wouldn't understand, simpletons barely understand anything, and that's just fact. Ok, you don't have much time left so I'm going to lay this out in terms you understand. Blake. _I want her._ But it's not just her I want, oh no no no. The rest of team RWBY, Pyrrha, and a few others that I'm thinking of acquiring are all on my list as well.

"Some of them I already have, others are just on the edge and need a little push. That's what you are Sun, the little push that Blake needs to fall into my arms. They will all love me, and in that love for me, they will save themselves, and each other."

Sun's had blood streaming out of his head, eyes and mouth, but even through all of this pain, he somehow managed to open his mouth, "Y-you c-crazy b-b-bastard," He coughed up blood onto the pavement, "F-fuck yo-" and then Sun Wukong went limp, his head colliding with the pavement as he took his last breath.

 **Sun Wukong has died**

During Sun's last words, James's eyebrows had shot up in surprise "Note to self," he muttered, "Final acts before death may be able to break through _'know your enemy'_." As he looked down at the now lifeless body, a shadowy figured started to materialize behind him, floating in place. In its hand was a blue dust crystal, and without a single movement from James, it moved forward faster than the naked eye, plunging the crystal deep inside the body, before disappearing. James watched as Sun's skin slowly started to change color, before accelerating rapidly and causing the body to go rigid.

Sun's body had just been flash-frozen.

Once again, the shadowy figure appeared behind James, but this time it's movements were instant. It's fist shot out an uncountable number of times, smashing the frozen body into microscopic pieces in seconds. Now that James's mission was done, he let out a breath he had been holding in. Yes, mid game was certainly intense.

The perfect ending was in his sight, just beyond the horizon, and once he achieved it then maybe... just maybe...

He'd feel something for once.

* * *

 **Author's note**

 **Hello, my dear readers.**

 **HOOOOOOOOOOOOOO boy, this was a long one.**

 **I think this is actually the longest chapter that I have ever written. Ever. And I'll tell you why it is.**

 **I've fallen in love with this character.**

 **Not in that way, you weirdos. It's just once I started writing him, he just came to life more than what I envisioned him as. Not that I like him as a person, no he's meant to be a sociopathic killer, but I just have so much fun writing him. Told you guys chapter two would be interesting.**

 **Anyway, in review, I tried to get this chapter out in a week but was late by one day, hope you can forgive the wait, and I'll try to make this weekly but things might pop-up and delay it from time to time, I'm sure you guys know how hectic life can be.**

 **When I started writing this guy at the beginning of the week, I was pretty positive I had made an intricate antagonist.**

 **Then I started watching Dexter and I realized that he was no-where near as good as I thought he was.**

 **So I re-wrote somethings about him, and I think this is a major improvement. Again, express anything you want in the reviews, oh god I just realized how much shit I'm going to get for killing Sun off, and that's not just going to be a closed end story, this will come up again, you'll just have to find out.**

 **Also if anyone can guess James's power, then that's some beautiful DUWANG you have there.**

 **Again, thank you for the wait, and I would like to introduce you to your antagonist, James Flare.**

 **Your author, Zakku**


	3. Hanging on by a thread

**Duality**

 **Chapter 3**

 **Hanging on by a thread**

I had never experienced a hangover.

And no it wasn't because I had never gotten drunk before, I wasn't some ultra-prude or something. I just never experienced them, the worst thing I had experienced after a night out – or in sometimes – was throwing up. Which, whilst not fun, was something that ended quickly and something I could deal with. Ma' always says that it comes with youth, and that once I get older and my body wears down a bit I'll start to feel the effects, which I guess could be true.

Pretty ironic though, considering that the last two times I woke up, sober I might add, I felt like shit.

I regained consciousness abruptly, which meant my eyes opened and closed again instantly. My body felt sluggish, and I could tell that my clothes were damp. The combination led to a very uncomfortable experience. I was getting pretty used to uncomfortable situations at this point though.

My right hand felt numb, like a pins and needles type of numb, so I attempted to lift it. I wasn't expected the added weight though, so the next thing I felt was something slip, followed by the sound of glass hitting carpet. Groaning, I cracked an eye open, seeing that the light flowing into the room had calmed down enough to not be irritating to my sensitive eyes. Shifting up slowly as to not upset my stomach, something I had learned from experience, I swung my legs over the side of the bed.

Looking down, I huffed at the site of the bottle I had been drinking out of laying on its side with the rest of its contents spilling out on the floor. My mind still not quite up to speed, I leapt forward to save the rest of the alcohol from being wasted, getting on my hands and knees and grabbing it by the neck. This turned out to be a bad idea however, as my minor victory was interrupted by my stomach shifting in a very _unpleasant_ way. Groaning again, though longer this time, I moved my hand to my stomach, using the bottle in my other hand to support my position.

It was pointless though, given that I still threw up all over the floor.

Looking down at the stained carpet, it was mostly purple given that the only thing I had ingested in god knows how long was the wine, I let out a pained breath and flipped myself over onto my back, well away from my own sick, and stared up at the ceiling. The brief flash of pain was enough to get me thinking properly, and my mind raced with all the things I had learned. I was in _RWBY_ , or the more accurate phrase right now would be Remnant. Was that what this planet was called? Or was it the name of a continent? I growled at my lack of memory, trust me to forget stuff like that when I need it most.

Okay, forget that right now, what _was_ relevant? My mind flashed to the journal entry. The professor's name was unfamiliar, and my memory wasn't so bad that I'd forget characters as important as the teachers. Vert Baker. What can I garner from this? Obviously this means that characters that aren't in the show, exist here. Pretty obvious, but just a stepping stone to later conclusions. Ok, what else? He was tasked with looking after four teams. What year? Didn't say. Ok, I think it's safe to assume that none of the main cast was sent out here. Why were they out here? To test something, some sort of barrier or something. Shit, can't remember.

Sitting up slowly, I climbed to my feet, grimacing at the smell now permeating the room. I trudged towards the desk chair before slumping into it and pushing myself back towards the computer. One tap of the spacebar and I was back to the journal – or log – entry. My eyes skimmed over the important parts; shield, Beacon, Atlus, Ozpin. I leant back in the chair as my mind raced.

Ok – I really had to stop starting thoughts like that – so in summary; this dorm was built with a special shield, one Grimm weren't supposed to get to be able to see. Ozpin sent four teams and a teacher out to test it, what year these teams were in I don't know. I clicked about on the desktop to see if I could find anything else, the globe was the first one I clicked on, which brought opened a window that displayed a sad face and some text. 'Sorry, it seems you aren't connected to the internet'.

"Fuck," I let out under my breath, "So your electricity is working but your internet isn't? Bullshit."

Closing this window, I clicked into the corner on the start button, which listed all of three applications, which where the three on the hot bar. Was this guy a god damn Mormon or something? Between this computer and the room, this guy defined conservative, to a degree I hadn't seen before. The last thing I clicked on was the little black box, which, surprise surprise, opened up a slightly bigger black box. I stared at it for a moment, taking it in in all of its blank glory, before pushing myself back from the computer in frustration.

Great, just great. The one piece of machinery that could tell me everything, tells me _jack shit_. I _needed_ information, I couldn't go into whatever this was blind, not when things that _literally want to destroy humanity_ exist here. I say whatever this was because I literally had no idea what was going on, I was just compartmentalizing my problems. I needed to be logical, straight to the point about what needed to be dealt with now, otherwise the panic would get to me.

Standing up, I scanned the room around me, which hadn't changed since I had passed out, other than the massive purple stain on the floor. I looked towards the computer desk, walking towards it and opening the drawer on top of the cupboard. Looking inside, I found there was only one thing there. A stainless steel hip flask, the ones stereotypical alcoholics usually have on them at all times.

Picking it up, I examined it in my hand "Damn," I muttered "I think Mister conservative is a closet alcoholic." Well he _was_ tasked with taking care of... twelve? Yeah, four teams of four. Twelve teenagers. Flipping it over in my hands, I took notice of the engraved V.B. on one side. My eyes caught something on the bottom, so I held it up in front of my face.

'V, You're gonna need this – Q'

Q? Why did that sound familiar? Reading the message multiple times, I tried to place the letter. Q, alcohol... My eyes widened. Qrow, Qrow Branwen. Mr. conservative was friends with Qrow Branwen. I set the flask down on the desk and closed the drawer. To be honest, this really wasn't relevant, but it _was_ pretty cool. The fact that Qrow existed sent a spike of happiness through me, the guy was awesome, and voiced by the legendary Vic Mignogna. Again, not relevant but you gotta appreciate the little things.

Turning away from the flask, which I'm definitely keeping once I get out of here, I looked around the room again, still desperate but not on the edge of panic like before. My eyes fell back onto the bed I had fell into a few hours before. Was it hours? My time is pretty fucked up right now, so I absentmindedly glanced back towards the computer to fix that problem. 16:48. So that's.. 4:48 in the afternoon. Good to know.

My eyes wondered over to the bed again, and then they moved up slightly. The shelf above it had many books, and given that this room belonged to a teacher I hoped that they would give me _something._ Walking across the room, making sure I avoided the puddle _again,_ I stopped at the side of the bed and reached up to the shelf, taking three out of the five books off, and sitting down to inspect them. I spread them out over the bed, and looked at the titles, which caused my eyebrows to shoot up.

'Ninjas of love', 'Ninjas of love: twilight crusade', and 'Ninjas of love: Pirate's revenge' stared back at me.

The first book had the most conservative cover, with the silhouette of a girl on a hill with the backdrop of a crescent moon. The other two however were so different that I couldn't even believe they shared the same title: 'twilight crusade' had a picture of a silver haired girl with wolf ears and a tail, lying next to another girl, who this time had blond hair and cat ears. Both of them where wearing skin tight black suits. The final one 'Pirate's revenge' was a bit more animated, with a red haired girl wearing an eyepatch, bikini top and jean shorts on one boat pointing a gun at what seemed to be the same character from 'Twilight crusade', the silver haired girl with the wolf ears. Guess that meant she was the main character or something

Faunus, was what she would be called I think.

This was... porn, right? The stuff that Blake read? Or was it really porn? I think it was _implied_ that it was but was never officially stated as being it. Either that or it was just a fandom thing. I grimaced, this was why I needed information, I couldn't rely on my shoddy memory not mixing up canon and headcanons. Hell, canon could not even have happened, and I could be as blind as a bat in a world that could easily get me killed and I don't want to die here-!

I took a breath, forcing myself to calm down. Forget about that, what I need to do _now_ is check to see if the other books were useful, or Mr. conservative was also a closet pervert as well as a closet alcoholic. Never judge a book by its cover I guess, or not because I didn't even know what the guy fucking looked like. Standing up, I reached up to the shelf again and took the two remaining books, sitting back down to inspect them and hoping to God that it was something useful.

I was not disappointed, as the titles of the books were 'Aura and you' and 'Grimm: the unknown enemy'. A small smile graced my face, a small victory, but a victory none the less. On the front of the books were also the names of the authors, or author, and this just piqued my interest more.

Both of these books were written by Doctor Bartholomew Oobleck.

Opening up the first book, Aura and you, I was surprised to see a personalized autograph on the inside cover. 'There is always time to go over the basics' it read, followed by a scribble that I assumed was Oobleck's signature. Curious, I reached for 'Grimm: the unknown enemy' and opened it up also, this time being greeted by 'History is taught so that we do not repeat the mistakes of the past' followed by another signature. Huh, seems he knew Oobleck on somewhat of a personal level, or he was a fan that just happened to work in the same place.

Closing the book about Grimm, I focused my attention on 'Aura and you' taking a breath before flipping the page.

 _Aura and you._

 _Introduction: The origin of Aura_

 _Hello and good day to you, I am Doctor Bartholomew Oobleck: Professor of Beacon academy, hunter, and newly published author, as of this book that is. This book was written to teach people about the essence of life itself, the thing that gives huntsmen their strength and protects them like a bright glowing shield, Aura. I will be covering most of everything I can in this book, from the origins of Aura, to the many unique and wondrous semblances that permeate the huntsman ranks. However, I would like to start out by mentioning that I will not be covering everything there is to know about Aura, as, well, a significant portion of things are still unknown, or mostly still theories. I am a man of science, so that does not mean I am above concluding that a theory is logical, however if a theory is mentioned, know that it is just that, a theory, and is not fact. Or, around the time you may be reading this things have been discovered that either disprove or confirm certain theories, and if that may be the case I encourage any reader to fact check themselves. This is not a be all and end all for information about Aura, the most important parts are the basics, which are deeply rooted and not subject to change anytime soon. Or they may have, science is a fickle mistress, and one I fell in love with many years ago. Anyway, onwards._

 _In contrast to the rest of Aura basics, the actual origins of aura are shrouded in mystery. It is not an entirely exaggerated statement that if you were to ask ten different people, from ten different parts of Remnant, you would get significantly different answers, give or take one or two similarities. This is the only part in the book where most of the things I will be referencing are theories and legends, which is somewhat ironic given the last paragraph, however this is why I expressed the importance of fact-checking and theories. You are entitled to believe whatever you want to believe regarding this subject, as some of these legends are deeply rooted in religion, however so is everyone else. It is the same in science, if you have a theory that has evidence and results to back it up, but your colleague does as well, then in a sense you are both right, until the theory is proved, and the origin of Aura is said to be unproveable, but darn it we will try._

 _Getting on to the many beliefs and theories. The most well-known legend across all of Remnant, is the legend of the four maidens, which I will not be covering in detail but can easily be found in many other places. The basic gist behind the story, is that an old hermit lived in a secluded house far away from civilization, only viewing the outside world through a window. However one day a young woman came along and expressed that she was on a journey and was waiting for her sisters. This you woman showed him the beauty of serenity, and calmness, and over time, the woman's sisters came, and showed the old man the many beauties the world had to offer outside of his home. To express his gratitude to them, the hermit reveled that he was a wizard, and bestowed upon them the power of the four seasons._

 _How Aura developed from this point is also up for debate, some believe that when the wizard released his sealed power, that magic permeated the air and affected humans for generations to come, others believe that through the lineage of the four maidens, that magic was passed down through their genes until every human being was able to access it. That is the most well-known story, but not the only one; many people in Mistral believe that, when the god of darkness created Grimm to lay waste to the lands, the god of light gave humans Aura to combat them and protect themselves. There are many over wide arrays of legends, however I would like to get onto something much more rooted in science, so we will be moving on from this subject._

I blinked my eyes, which had become much more dry as I read on. Reading that was so... surreal, especially when you know the things that are referred to as legends are...Real. The maidens were real, and even the light and dark gods were real, just not in the way most people thought they were.

It was funny that I barely knew anything about this world, yet I knew facts that 99% of normal people didn't.

I folded the next page and closed the book, grabbing it and the other useful one off the bed. If I read the other one I'd be here all day, and I really wanted to get more stuff done. I didn't have Aura anyway, I mean, could I even use it? The thought was pleasant if I could, but those legends were true, and if any of them actually involved how people were able to use it, then my body just wouldn't be able to. It was a slightly depressing thought. So caught up in my thoughts, I forgot to step around the puddle in the middle of the floor, causing me to slip forward with a startled cry and the books to fly out of my hands.

They hit the desk, which caused the keyboard to fall off and land face down on the carpet. Cursing, I stood up quickly, examining my trousers to see if I had gotten sick on them. Nothing, good. I walked forward carefully, a glare directed towards the puddle, reaching the desk and bending down to pick up the books. With them firmly in hand, I stood straight back up – careful not to hit my head this time – and set them down next to the flask that had surprisingly stayed on the desk; two new things I'm taking with me when I leave.

As I was doing this, the computer screen – which had come back on – caught my eye. The black box was there like I had left it, but this time there was _text_ on it. Very interesting text.

'Disable student room lock?'

Yes/No

What?

Wide eyed, I looked from the screen to the keyboard now lying face down on the ground. Carefully yet hastily, I brought the keyboard back up to the desk and typed in 'Yes'.

'Which team?'

STIN

FAIR

STAR

TIME

All

My excitement was growing, the black box was some sort of master control for the locks. I quickly typed in 'All', and was greeted with the sound of multiple dings coming through the open door out in the hallway. Did I really not close that?

'All student locks disabled'

I quickly looked towards the open door, a grin freshly formed on my face. Looking at my gathered items, I made a silent promise to some back for them, before I made my way across the room and out into the hallway. Ok, so four doors, which one should I start with? Probably the one closest to my left, then I can work my way around. If there was anything to see that is. Taking a breath, I put my hand on the door handle, and pushed through.

The carpet was black. That was the first thing I noticed as I closed the door behind me. There were four beds, one in each quarter of the room, with red covers and admittedly comfy looking pillows. There was a circler rug in the middle, and next to each bed was a reasonably sized drawer, which I'm going to go out on a limb and say contains their clothes and such. Stepping into the middle of the room, I did a 360 sweep to see if I missed anything. There were posters on the walls, probably bands and stuff that I'm not familiar with. No windows, but there was a little note on the door that I missed, I quickly hopped over and inspected it.

'Team STAR

Sally

Tiffany

Ann

Rob

We da best '

So this was the room of my old friends Tiffany and Rob, that was pretty funny actually. Turning back around with a chuckle, my eyes settled on a door on the other side of the room. It was white, and directly forward from the actual door. I needed to get a full scope of these rooms before I looked around in detail, so I walked up to it and pushed it open. What greeted me was one of the most beautiful sights I had ever seen in my entire life. It was entirely white, with four sinks lined up next to each other, four toilet cubicles in the corner, and four towels lined up on racks, this was not what was beautiful however, no what was beautiful was the small area sectioned off by a screen that had a shelf filled with shampoos and soaps.

And the holy god of water itself, the shower.

Completely forgetting about the rest of the room, I hastily shuffled across the smooth blue floor and towards my sanctuary with excitement on my face, opening the door and giving a silent prayer to whatever god would listen as I turned the knob.

And was greeted with the majestic sight and sound of running water.

A giddy smile came upon my face, yes this would be perfect.

* * *

It took a while to get the perfect temperature, and I spent a minute jumping about from too hot to too cold. But when I found the perfect temperature, it was like all the tension just drained right out of me. I had always loved showers, much more so than baths, I don't know why, it was just so relaxing to me. The water pelted down on my head as I leaned forward, the curls straightening out as they became wet. I closed my eyes and let out a breath, I needed this, with everything that had happened over the last two days or so.

Now that I was thoroughly relaxed, it enabled me to think more clearly about my situation, as opposed to the single mindedness that helped me avoid panic before. The fact that I was in RWBY had too many questions attached to it, including the basic six of how, what, when, where, who, why and how, so I couldn't think about that right now and spoil my good mood. Instead, I got to thinking about the dorm I was currently in, and what could've happened to it. It didn't _seem_ like there was any sign of a struggle, so it didn't look like Grimm had broken in and killed them all, and even if they had, hunters are basically all just trained superheroes, so unless it was some kind of Mega-Grimm, I doubt they all would've just rolled over.

Taking my head out from under the shower, I flicked my hair back. It only got like this when it was wet, otherwise it didn't grow down, but out.

Damn you, curly hair.

Reaching for the shelf that had various bottles on it, careful not to knock off my glasses that were on the same shelf, I took a red bottle into my hand. Flipping open the lid, I took a sniff, giving a hum of approval at the strawberry smell, and squeezed the viscous red liquid into my hands. I really didn't give a fuck about what I smelt like as long as it was good, some guys wanna smell all manly and shit, but life's too short to give a fuck about that kinda thing.

 _Beep beep_

Ignoring the sudden spike of pain in my chest, I ran my hands through my hair multiple times, before putting it back under the shower. Once my cleanliness was confirmed, I turned the knobs till the water stopped, grabbing the towel outside of the shower, before wrapping it around my waist and stepping out and making my way back into the dorm room.

Now for the hard part: clothes.

To be honest I didn't really think that far, I just saw a shower and jumped in without thinking. My own clothes were sweaty and grimy as fuck, and I didn't want to ruin my newly acquired cleanliness, so that was a no right off the bat. I looked towards each of the bedside drawers, my eyes widening as I realized I would probably have to search through their stuff to find clothes, which was kinda weird for me, and awkward given that they might not even be my size.

Not to mention that if the note on the door was anything to go by, three out of four of the people that slept in this room were female.

My face fell into an uneasy look as I realized that I would basically have a one in four chance of opening the right drawer the first time around. It wasn't like someone would judge me, no one would ever know, but if I ended up looking in some girls underwear drawer by mistake I would _feel_ like a bit of a slimy bastard. Sighing, I walked over and sat down on one of the beds, running a hand through my still wet hair to stop it covering my glasses.

Welp, you gotta do what you gotta do in situations like these. Standing up and walking over to the closest drawer, which I think was the top right corner relative to the front door to the hallway, I tied the towel to make sure it didn't fall down and expose my massive... stomach. I had a bit of a belly on me. I sniggered at my own joke. Comedy genius right there. With a smirk that probably didn't look that good given what I was about to do, I opened up the top drawer.

And what stared back at me was a shotgun.

Not kidding, no joke, I literally opened up a drawer in a dorm room and was greeted by a goddamn shotgun. It was entirely white, except for the grip on the bottom and the end of the barrels. It was a combat shotgun, I think. Stepping back, I sat back down on the bed, hands together in front of my face, "What," I started, "the _fuck_!?" Seriously, what was my life right now? The worst thing I thought I would find was accidentally looking at some girl's underwear, but instead I find a _motherfucking shotgun_ in the first drawer I check.

Fuck my life.

Standing back up, I walk over and close the drawer, pushing what just happened to the back of my mind, something that I was getting used to recently. With a grimace, I quickly pulled open the second drawer down, before pushing it back in with an even more pronounced grimace.

One of the girls owned the shotgun apparently.

* * *

Would you believe me if I told you that the last bedside table I checked was the one with the male clothes in it? Luckily the guy was _actually_ close enough to my size without it being an issue, so I caught some sort of break today. I think the guy's favorite colour was blue, because there was a lot of it: Blue boxers, white and blue bottoms and a _lot_ of blue shirts, with one or two other colours thrown in probably just for variety's sake. What I ended up with was a light pair of gray 'pants', as they would be referred to here, with blue lines going down either side, a baby blue top with a somewhat familiar white snowflake symbol in the middle that I couldn't quite place at the moment, and white and blue socks.

I actually quite liked blue, but my favourite colour was red, and this guy _really_ liked blue.

No shoes though, and the ones I had on were bright red. I let out a sigh as I looked at myself in the mirror in the bathroom, I had also taken the opportunity to search the other rooms as well, which thankfully didn't have anything quite as shocking as the shotgun in the drawer. I _had_ found something very interesting under one of the beds though, two things actually: a green backpack, which was now firmly strapped to my back, and a white zip-up hoodie. I fucking _loved_ hoodies, but this one was a little baggie on me.

I stared into my own brown eyes, and then looked myself up and down. I looked like someone had sneezed onto a canvas. I shook my head, that wasn't relevant right now, practicality won over fashion in this situation. Turning around, I walked out of the bathroom, into the hallway and then back into the first room I had entered. The smell of my own bile had gone down a bit, but it was still strong enough to make me uneasy, so I quickly rushed over and picked up the two books and the flask, and beelined it outside.

When I reached the stairs at the end of the hallway, I stopped for a split second, a look of thought came over my face. Should I...? Fuck it. I turned on my heel, marching back towards the room I had entered first, entering and walking up to the top right bed and opening the top drawer. The shotgun stared back at me, and as I picked it up I could feel my heartbeat speed up, I pumped it, which showed that it was in fact loaded. I don't know why someone would keep it in a drawer and have it loaded, but whatever.

Taking my backpack off, I used the strap to put it around my shoulder and onto my back, heart still beating all the while. After I put my backpack back on, I took a few minutes sliding the shotgun to my front and around to my back. After I was satisfied, I looked back into the drawer and found ammo of various colour in the back.

Wow, this girl was seriously packing.

Taking my backpack off _again_ I unzipped it and placed the extra ammo inside, better have too much than too little, right? Once my noticeably heavier pack was on, I closed the drawer again and made my way out of the room and down the hallway, noticeably more confident with the weapon on my back. When I reached the bottom of the stairs, I made a beeline for the front door, ready to face the forest with my newly acquired supplies. I would've made it too, if not for my stomach announcing its presence for the first time in what felt like days.

 _Grumble gurgle grumble grumble._

I looked down at the noise, was I really this hungry? My eyes went wide as I realised that I hadn't eaten jack shit in probably something close to two days. I turned around, my eyes falling to the fridge in the common area. If the computer worked, then surely the fridge must still be running, right? I walked over, grasping the handle and opening it, the small blast of cold air hitting me confirming that it was still running. There wasn't that much in there, other than some milk, butter – both of which I'm fairly sure are out of date – and some yogurt on the top shelf. I raised my eyebrow at the two four packs, they both looked strawberry if the colouring was anything to go by. Picking one up, I inspected it in my hands with a sceptical look, could I really afford for this to be out of date?

 _Grooooooooooooooooooowl_

Ok, guess that's the answer. Taking both packs of four out, I opened one up and sniffed the contents, the sweet scent of strawberries met my nose. Setting them on the counter and deciding to take a risk, I fished about the drawers for spoon. Once I found one, I decided to forgo sitting down and just dig in. 'Sorry Tif' I thought somewhat bemusedly before eating my first spoon. One spoon, two spoons, three spoons.

Oh my god, this shit was _gooood_.

I don't know how, and I don't know why, but this was probably some of the best yogurt I had ever had. Maybe it was because I was hungry as fuck, but I ended up eating all eight cups with a satisfied smile on my face. Bracing myself on the counter and burping, I wiped my moustache to make sure I didn't have two, and wiped my beard just to make sure none somehow got trapped inside.

Ah, the struggles of having facial hair.

Once my miniature feast was finished, I contemplated finding a waste bin to put the rubbish in, but decided against it, not like anyone would be around here anytime soon anyway. Walking away from the kitchen and back down the entrance hallway, I stepped around a puddle forming at the base of the door to the small bathroom I had entered in the beginning. Nope, not bothered, somebody else's problem.

Walking down the small step, reached the double doors and took a breath to steady myself. I had to do this, otherwise I would just be stuck in this place forever. I hated sitting still, I had done too much of that in my life...

 _Beep Beep_

Adrenaline empowered me as I pushed through the door and out into the clearing, ready to face this new world. However once my eyes adjusted to the sun, I stopped in my tracks and my heart froze.

One was at the edge of the clearing, yet another one was _much_ closer, their bodies were pitch black, the only thing that wasn't was the bone-like protrusions sticking out of their back and arm, as well as their wickedly sharp claws on their hands and feet. What was the most disturbing however, was their bone-white mask that covered the front of their head, only stopping at their deadly teeth, and the blood red lines running down them, connecting to pupilless, soulless, orange eyes.

Orange eyes that were looking directly at me.

Creatures of Grimm: Beowolves.

My mind and heart froze as the closest one stared at me, its mouth open and its teeth dripping saliva, my confidence dissipating in an instant. I didn't move, didn't make a sound, in the vain, _stupid_ hope that it hadn't noticed me. Sweat dripped down my forehead, and I slowly reached for the strap of my shotgun...

The door behind me slammed closed.

The beast took off in an instant, powerful legs sprinting straight towards me, its mouth making the most terrifying sound I had ever heard in my life. I fumbled to pull my shotgun around to my front by the strap, but even though I had a head start, it still got to me first and swung with its deadly claws. Even though my head start didn't help me make the first move, it helped save my life, as I was already in the middle of taking a step back.

It still caught my eye though.

Letting out a pained cry as I stumbled backwards, I finally was able to bring my shotgun forward and pump it, desperately aiming the gun at the beast and taking a one eyed shot. Both me and the beast flew back, me with what felt like a dislocated arm and a closed eye with blood dripping down it, and the monster without a head. Falling backwards, I was winded by my hard backpack, and I could hear the heavy beats of the second beowolf coming to kill me. I tried in vain to get back up, however my bag yet again proved to be an inconvenience, and I struggled to even begin to get up.

The second beast leapt at me, diving down to drive either its claws or teeth into my neck. I held the gun forward, stopping the wolf with a great amount of effort. The thing was strong however, significantly stronger than me, and I could start to feel my attempts to keep it at bay failing. We struggled for several moments, the Grimm just waiting for the right moment for my arms to give, so it could lash out and catch me in the neck, my teeth were grit and there was absolute terror in my eyes as I vainly struggled.

So much adrenaline was going through my body, that I barely noticed my injured eye, still dripping blood, opening, and my vision being perfectly fine. My desperation was heightening, and I shouted "Leave me alone! Get the fuck off of me!" In its snarling face.

I don't know what happened in the next few moments, as the Grimm just seemed to... not give up, but it suddenly wasn't putting as much effort in. This was the miracle I needed, as the strength difference allowed me to push the butt of the gun into the things face, throwing it off of me a short ways. Still on the grassy floor, I hastily sat up and saw the beowolf shaking its head and jumping to its feet again, seemingly looking confused.

When it turned back to my direction, it stared into the barrel of a gun.

"Fuck off."

With another shot that felt like murder on my arm, the things head seemed to explode with _squelch_ , black goo flying everywhere _except_ for me, thank god. Once I was sure the thing was dead, I scrambled to my feet in a panic, rushing back inside in an instant.

Once the heavy door was closed behind me, I leaned back against it, clutching my shotgun in my hands like a lifeline. I had... almost died, they almost killed m-

 _Beep Beep_

Pain lanced through my chest, causing me to drop the gun and letting it hang off of me as I clutched my chest with both hands. I fell to the floor, one hand bracing me on my hands and knees as the other remained at my chest. My face was getting tight, and my breaths were so short they barely felt like breaths at all. It felt like someone had mistaken me for Dracula and had hammered a stake into my heart.

 _Beep Beep_

My head only supported my position now as the pain continued. Blood from my injured eye dropped onto the floor, starting to pool around my head.

 _Beep Beep_

 _Not now_

 _Beep_

 _Not today_

 _Beep_

 _Beep_

 _Beep_

 _Beep Beep_

The pain in my chest started to recede, and as my breathing evened out, I pushed myself up into a sitting position. My face still held a pained expression as my body started to calm down. I took the hand from my chest and let out a breath. That was a close one. I looked down at the small pool of blood, and my eyebrows raised. What? I held a hand in front of the yes that I could feel blood around.

I could see perfectly fine.

I stood up, forgetting about my little episode. This is more important.

 _No it's not._

Walking on still somewhat shaky legs, I made my way past the puddle in the middle of the hallway, and towards the kitchen. The bathroom upstairs would probably be more convenient for me, because it had tissues and a mirror, however I didn't trust my legs to make it up those stairs at the moment. I walked to the sink, bracing myself on the tables and sofa along the way. One I was at the counter, I turned the tap on and cupped some of the water in my hands and splashed it against my face. I quickly looked around in the cupboards to see if I could find any tissue. Finding some under the sink, I ripped a sheet off and held it under the water.

Once it was nice and wet – that made me chuckle - I held it up to my eye and attempted to wash the blood away. I flinched as the tissue touched the wound, it was weird that it didn't hurt until I touched it, and as I cleaned it I hissed at the pain. The funny thing was, once I cleaned the blood off, no more came out, even though I had just been almost sliced open minutes ago.

Sighing, I readjusted the shotgun around my back. Turning the water off and watching it flow down the drain. I stepped back from the sink and turned around, walking much steadier and moving back out into the hallway. This time my eyes moved the opposite way, towards the emergency exit on the other side of the corridor.

I walked towards it with significantly less motivation than I did the other exit. Taking a deep breath to calm myself, I slowly opened the door, sticking only my head out and taking a look around, before focusing forward and looking up.

There was a giant wall of rock in front of me, and when I looked up, there was a cutoff point, which probably meant this was a cliff. However, what was at base was more interesting, it was a small glass cylinder, and I could see there was a tiny screen. Exiting the house cautiously, eyes wiping about the open space, I walked up to the cylinder, entered, and hesitantly touched the screen.

'To Beacon academy?'

There was a button that said 'up', and one that said 'down' that was grayed out. My eyes narrowed in thought, before widening.

This was an elevator.

* * *

 **Author's note**

 **Hello, my dear readers.**

 **First thing I would like to say, is that I'm sorry for the lateness. It's funny, make a weekly update schedule eight days after your first update, and then have the next one be late. I do have a reason for this though, my birthday was last week, which despite only being one day on the calendar, took multiple days from me. I had to start writing this like the day before it was due, heh, talking about this fic like it's an essay is funny.**

 **Anyway, something I wanted to say regarding updates is the perspective you will get, there wont be a strict schedule, I won't go from James to Frankie and back again consistently. I'll go where the story takes me, and if that means to a different character altogether then so be it.**

 **Anyway, you guys probably know the drill with reviews by now, and also, express your opinion about Frankie's character, was he too bland this chapter? I'm somewhat experimenting with first person. Also, don't think ive forgotten about certain questions. I got you readers.**

 **Anyway, hope you enjoy, and hopefully the next update will actually be a week from now**

 **Your author, Zakku.**


	4. Lifting spirits

**Duality**

 **Chapter 4**

 **Lifting spirits**

 _Aura and you_

 _Chapter 2: Unlocking your Aura_

 _Aura is present in all living things, as a deep rooted magic attached to our very beings. Aura is so closely intertwined with who we are as individuals, that many people across Remnant believe that it represents the very soul itself. Tests during infancy have shown that all babies develop a small amount of energy within themselves during their early years, varying from ages one to three. This has been dubbed, somewhat uncreatively, as 'inner Aura' and is present in all humans until they have their aura unlocked. Measuring the size and intensity of this energy can help determine the strength of one's Aura later on in life, and is a common method used by hunter parents to test their child's potential, weather this is a good thing is up for debate._

 _The common practice in hunter schools is to wait a year after enrollment, to help build up physical conditioning without Aura, to make the most of the boost that it gives when unlocked. There is a common theory that the later Aura is unlocked, the more powerful it will be, however most of the cases used to support this are more anomaly than anything else and there has been no actual test carried out._

 _What happens when Aura is unlocked? Well most people that have had it unlocked as a child had described it as 'A warm comforting feeling spreading through your entire body, followed by the biggest sugar rush I've ever felt in my entire life.' Usually this is followed by a minor crash, also similar to a sugar rush, however this is where there are risks involved in the unlocking of Aura. The 'crash' causes the body to go into a vegetative state for a small amount of time, from anywhere up to one day in healthy people, to... the rest of their life for unhealthy people. This causes many children who have diseases, or potential lethal disabilities such as epilepsy, to never be able to unlock their Aura safely, even with the advanced medical technology of today._

 _It is because of this 'crash' that Aura is not used as a cure-all for disabilities and lethal diseases, though that is not to say that_ _ **every**_ _person parishes, there are outliers in every set of results, but the survival rate is low, low enough that unlocking a patient's Aura is only used as a last resort, with consent from the person in question. Why does this crash happen? Well research done on people in this state has shown that unlocking Aura unblocks pathways, these pathways help the 'inner' Aura flow out of the 'soul' and throughout the body, reinforcing limbs, organs, etc. However, it doesn't only let inner Aura_ _ **out**_ _, it also lets the very magic that permeates the world_ _ **in**_ _. Very rarely does a mere child have enough Aura to spread throughout their entire body, so they gain help from the outside world. This causes an overload of sorts, which results in organs running at multiplied speed, hence the rush. It becomes too much eventually however, and the body must compensate by shutting down and letting itself grow used to the new energy. This is also why the malleability of the childhood stage is preferred. Unfortunately, this also effects any problems in the body, cancer cells will multiply at ten times the rate, brain tumors will grow at the same speed, and thus you see the problem._

 _I seem to have gone slightly off topic, and I would like to say that this shouldn't discourage you, if you are perfectly healthy then you have nothing to worry about. The crash may seem scary but as long as you are safe throughout, then unlocking your Aura should cause no problems, and you are pretty much required to possess it if you desire to become a huntsman. There are two known ways to unlock Aura, one is to have someone with Aura reach inside of you and unblock the passageways themselves. The other more difficult way is too chaotic to even be called a method, it has been proven that under extreme duress, the body can force the Aura pathways open. This is extremely risky, not just because of the situation you would have to put yourself in to achieve this, but because of the untold amount of complications that would result from this, most of which we haven't even began to find out._

 _When having someone unlock your Aura, there is a quote that is used to help focus and manipulate their Aura into unblocking yours, this quote is personal and specific to each person's experiences and personality. However there is a template, which I will list below:_

 _For it is in _ that we achieve immortality. Through this, we _. _ and unbound by time, I release your soul, and by my hand... _._

 _Your soul should fill in the blanks._

 _And with that, welcome to the world of Aura._

* * *

I stared up at the edge of the cliff, my eyes trailing up and down its craggily side, looking for anything out of the ordinary, any lights, indents, or anything out of the ordinary really. After my eyes roamed up and down for the fifth time, I gave up and ended up staring back at the glass elevator. Nothing, no lights or anything up and along the cliff.

Then how the fuck did this thing work!?

I walked up to it and stepped inside again, seeing if I could see anything from the inside. Nothing again, just sleek and surprisingly clean glass, and the thing is that it was _just_ glass, no metal top or bottom to hide wires in, and the only thing that wasn't was the control panel on the glass walls. I wasn't an expert on elevators, but I goddamn knew this thing shouldn't go anywhere without some kind of pully system, and there were no wires in sight above or around it.

I looked back to the dorm, remembering what the journal entry said about the range of the Aura... thing. Battery? Shield? Fuck it, didn't matter because it did both anyway. So, I'm guessing that's how this thing got its power at least, but that still didn't explain how it actually got off the ground, unless it fuckin' flew or somethi-

My eyes widened as I remembered that dust existed, and that making something fly was very much possible. Adjusting my backpack, I took tentative steps forward, entering the lift again. I took one last look at the building, an unpleasant felling in my chest as I thought about what could've happened to the people who lived there one last time. A complicated look came upon my face, before I sighed and looked up to the sky.

"I hope all that happened was you abandoned the place and Ozpin hasn't gotten around to demolishing it," I mumbled to seemingly no one, "But just in case, I want you all to know that _I'll_ never forget you, even if Ozpin covered it up and no one else does, thanks for keeping me safe for a little while." It was unnecessary, and I'd feel like a little bit of an idiot if I found out later that every single person that lived here was alive and well, but it made me feel a tiny bit better for the moment. "See ya."

And with that I turned around and looked to the screen, lifting my right arm up to touch the 'yes' button, before wincing and lifting my other arm. So my eye had stopped bleeding, but my arm was still sore. Good to know. Taking a breath, I tapped the 'up' option and braced myself.

…

Huh, guess the thing may be broke-

A sudden jerk caught me off guard and forced me to the ground, and as I looked up in shock and panic I could see brightly illuminated yellow lines running down the see-through walls. I used my good arm to grab the control panel and hoist myself up as the container started to shake, causing my backpack to make clanging noises. The entire elevator started vibrating, and I could see the beginning of a shadow below.

Was it...? Oh, it _was_!

As things started to even out a bit, I let go of the panel and stepped closer to the glass, staring down at the ground that was getting further away by the second. A look of amazement came across my face as I realized I was _flying_ , in an _elevator._ I shifted my look to the dorm slowly becoming smaller by the moment, still immersed in this surreal feeling. If I stood right up against the glass and glanced down, I could see the bottom of the elevator glowing a dull purple colour; dust at work. It was magic, _actual_ magic, and the surreal nature of that fact was hitting me full force as I stepped back. I looked up, seeing that the cliff edge was indeed getting closer, as if I needed one more justification for the fact that I was flying.

My eyes trailed from the oncoming cliff, to the yellow line trailing down the elevator. Were they related to dust too? If they were, I'd have to guess electric dust or something, the elevator had to have power somehow, or not. Magic and all that jazz. Wow, I just realized even my own basic logic would probably be off the mark when magic is involved, at least until I learned more about it. My face, which was previously showing a minor frown, changed into a look of amazement again as my eyes strayed from the yellow line to through the wall.

"Wooooooah."

The elevator had broken the tree line, and the sun was clearly visible in the distance. It wasn't sunset, but it was close enough for the colour of the sky to start becoming red. The sky was clear, and I could see birds flying away from me in the distance. The slow movement of the elevator upwards gave the view a somewhat cinematic look, which made it even more beautiful.

All that I needed was a light breeze, and this would be perfect.

I was so caught up in the view, that the sudden jerk of the elevator coming to a stop caused me to stumble forward slightly, bracing myself on the glass with my bad arm automatically. Grunting in pain, I righted myself and turned around. The screen was blinking green, and as I looked towards it the other side of the elevator the glass parted. Readjusting my backpack, I took careful steps forward with one hand on the strap. Once I was out of the elevator, the first thing that greeted me was a small screen secured to the ground by a pole, which I'm guessing calls the elevator up if it was at the bottom.

Taking a look at my surroundings, I found there wasn't really anything to look at. Other than the stand for the other control panel, there was nothing else that seemed unnatural. The orange rock of the cliff faded out the further north you went, and turned into bright green grass. There were no white panels on the ground, which probably meant that this wasn't the cliff that Ozpin launched his new students off of, which made sense come to think of it. All someone had to do was look down and they would be able to see the dorm, so I don't know why I even considered the option.

Feeling slightly foolish, something I'm sure would become familiar in time, I took a look further forward, stepping around the piece of machinery that quite frankly stuck out in this environment. In the distance I could see trees, plains, a small stream some ways away... And then my eyes caught what I was looking for.

The most notable thing was the giant tower in the middle of course, but the walls were big enough to see from this distance also. The light that radiated from its position also made it stand out more. It was way further away than what I expected, but I guess Ozpin really wanted to keep this a secret 'Just another way to hide your mistakes, eh Oz?' I thought bitterly. I'm starting to develop a dislike for Ozpin if you couldn't tell.

The wind hitting my back caused me to turn around, and my face shifted into a small smile. The Sun was now setting, and there were still no clouds, but this time I got that gentle breeze.

I was right, it was perfect.

Taking a deep breath in, I admired the view for a few minutes, before realizing that I was right next to the edge of a cliff and taking a few hurried steps back. Adjusting my backpack, and making sure the shotgun was still firmly in place, I turned back around and set my eyes on my distant destination. There was actually a path just past the control panel, which was convenient, but unnecessary. Hard to lose track of a giant structure even from a distance.

I started my trek forward, with somewhat of a giddy smile on my face, because in the distance was somewhere a lot of people had dreamed of visiting. Somewhere the defenders of this world studied and prepared.

In the distance was Beacon academy.

* * *

"Y'know on second thought I really didn't think this through."

I said this with a deadpan expression on my face, staring and the flowing stream going across from me. It had just turned dark too, so chances were if I tried to cross it, I would slip and fall face first, probably crack my head open on a rock just for good measure, too. I saw the sun setting _and_ I saw the stream from the cliff, how did I not come to this conclusion!?

I had made some progress on my way to Beacon, and relative to the entire length I'd say that I was about a third of the way there. When the sun set, the only reason I could still see my destination was the steady stream of light coming from the academy, and I'm pretty sure that wasn't going to last long. The field was, well, a field, so I was pretty much empty other than some small hills I saw when the sun was still up, some trees, and this stream.

I rolled up the sleeve of my hoodie and put my arm in, and it came up to about my elbow. Which meant that I'd estimate knee height or slightly lower. Looking down at my beaten-up shoes, I grimaced before getting an idea and thanking the lord for backpacks. Kneeling down and setting my backpack in front of me, I zipped it open. I then sat down and took my shoes and socks off, rolling up the socks and storing them in the shoes. Placing them in my bag, I readjusted my shotgun and hoisted the now heavier bag onto my back, kneeling down afterwards and rolling up my bottoms to me knees.

Taking a tentative step forward, I slid my foot into the stream.

Cold cold cold cold _cold_.

Wincing at the low temperature, I took another step forward and slipped my other foot in. I shivered at the feeling of mud between my toes as I slowly started my trek. I couldn't even see my feet through the water to watch where I was stepping because of the lack of light, and as I got into the rhythm my mind started to wonder. So if the size of the field and width of the field was any indication, I'm guessing that they took a vehicle from the elevator to Beacon, but on the way here I didn't see any tracks. Did they walk it? Logic would say no, but then again: magic. For all I know they could've just like super jumped or something.

Chuckling to myself, I took another slow step forward, I was almost to the other side now. Unfortunately, my lack of concentration would be my downfall, as the next step I took landed on something smooth and slippery, which caused me to let out a cry as I fell forward. My hands came up on reflex, and were buried elbow deep in the water, as well as causing water to fly up into my face. Sputtering, I pushed myself up and, with none of the carefulness of before, waded hurriedly through the rest of the water. Coming out on the other side, I quickly took my bag off to inspect it and sighed in relief that it wasn't wet.

I fell back onto the grass, wet clothes sticking to me. My sleeves were soaked, my shirt had gotten splashed pretty badly, and I'm fairly sure that there's mud all over my feet. I took my glasses off and cleaned them on the end of my hoodie.

"At least the grass feels nice." I mumbled somewhat sarcastically, staring up at the sky in defeat for a moment, and for the first time my eyes fell open the broken moon, its pieces floating next to its crescent. How did something like that even happen? The geographical nightmare would be catastrophic if that happened back home.

Home.

I sat up before a wave of sadness could hit me, punching the ground and then standing up. A breeze hit me as I shouldered my backpack back on, and I shivered. The cold air made my sore arm ache twice as much, and I grimaced. The sudden pile up of negative emotions was bad, but not unfamiliar.

 _Beep Beep_

I looked down at my feet, seeing that there was mud around and underneath my toes, and deciding that putting my shoes back on wouldn't be the best of ideas right now. A breeze rolled by and rattled my bones, better move before I freeze solid or something.

Starting my trek again, I tried to look on the bright side. At least now there weren't any obstacles between me and my destination, which I could still see because of a faint light coming from that direction.

"Things have to start looking up from here."

* * *

"Tim, look. Mud tracks. Someone was here, and without shoes for some reason."

"Stop staring and alert the other guards! Could just be a student out past curfew, but somethings telling me otherwise."

Me and my big mouth.

I was currently hiding behind an arch, my back stuck to the wall and my backpacks content digging into me. How did I get into this situation? Well turns out the light that I was using to guide me to my safe haven, my 'Beacon' of hope if you will, wasn't light coming from the actual structure, and was actually a fuck-ton of searchlights around the area.

I found this out a short time after I arrived, as when I got here I thought that I should take a look around, the inner fanboy in me demanded it. So once I had stopped gawking at the massive tower, I made my way past the arches to look at the statues near the middle of the plaza. I made it a few feet past them, bag jumbling all the way, before multiple beams of light blinded me, and indistinguishable shouts came from the same direction.

I scrambled back behind the arch on reflex, and that leads us to the situation I'm in now.

Sweat trickled down my forehead as the other guard spoke again, "No need to be that aggressive Tim, I was gonna do it anyway." He sounded offended.

"Well if you were good at your job then you woulda' done it as soon as you saw it! What if someone jumped out from, say, that arch over there," I tensed "and ambushed us!"

"Well you don't have to be a jerk!" The other guy shot back, "And besides, with these new dust tazers, no one's going to be getting the drop on any of us anytime soon."

"Tch," The angrier one spat, "You young guards and your new fancy smancy technology, why back in my day you didn't get nothin'. You did your job with a nightstick and your own w…" He trailed off after that, and for some reason this made my heart-rate speed up. I could tell it wasn't because of them getting further away, and my anxiety over the situation was killing me. Taking a shuddering breath, I tried a glance around the corner.

And looked right into the bearded face of a guard.

The events of the next few minutes seemed like a blur, a dull light in the guard's hand made my eyes snap to it, and they widened as I caught sight of something that look like a gun with yellow light coming off of it. The guards finger was on the trigger.

'No!' Was my desperate thought.

The guard squeezed the trigger, and when nothing happened, he looked down in slight confusion. The gun wasn't glowing anymore, and he squeezed the trigger again to no avail. I took this as my chance and reacted, my fist shot out on reflex and nailed the guy in the face. He was quite a bit bigger than me, I was about 5'9, and much heavier set, so all my punch did was shift his face to the side and make him take a step back. However, the step he took back to stabilise himself landed on one of my muddy tracks, which caused him to slip with an 'oof' and land on his back with a crash.

Not one to look a gift horse in the mouth, I took off in the direction of the fountains and statues. I heard the shout of "After him!" Come from the guard I downed, and my frantic running became even more frantic. As I neared the fountain, I heard the sound of boots hitting the ground behind me. The younger guard I hid from spoke into his radio.

"We got an intruder near the center of the plaza! Brown haired Faunus male, light skin and wearing glasses. Is armed with a shotgun, and has physically assaulted a guard already, I need all available guards to the Plaza!" How he got that out so quickly I have no idea, though as I reached the fountain, I saw a shit-ton more lights coming from the other side of the plaza. I hit a hard ninety degrees as I reached the fountain, my feet aching as they hit the hard stone, and I ran up the middle towards the massive entryway, seeing lights come from inside and aborting to going around the stairs instead of up them.

I ended up running through some bushes, and under some more arches, and as I ran my eyes spotted multiple districts cut off from the main building. There were paved paths stretching out from the main building, each with their own arches and everything. I had run to the right of the stairs and was currently running through a small grassy park-like area in-between.

What I was running towards seemed to be the dorms, if anything, and there were three building with a statue in the middle. Huh, never saw that bef-

The sound of an electric snap sounded behind me, and I redirected my run on reflex. Thank God I did, because a jolt of electricity hit where I had been seconds before. My face was set in a panicked expression, and my breaths heaved out quicker and quicker. My chest started to hurt. No no _No_! Not now, not when I could get electrocuted.

 _Beep bee-_

Fuck _off_!

I pushed myself further, the set of three buildings coming closer by the second. If I could just reach them, I could get inside and throw them off. Dorms wouldn't be locked, it was too much of a safety hazard in case of a fire. Or they would be and I was making stupid assumptions in my panicked state. Another crack of electricity joined the sound of crunching grass, and another hard angle that burned my feet. The heat of their search lights beat against my back, and shouts that I didn't care to listen too sounded out behind me.

If I got hit, it would kill me. I was partially soaked, and wasn't a fucking mutant like everyone else in this god damn world, and even if I wasn't wet, the ache in my chest reminded me that getting hit wasn't the best idea right now. As my feet stopped feeling grass and started feeling stone again, I let myself feel some form of relief. Though I wasn't about to stop now, I kept running towards the closest building and was about to crash through the unlocked, I hope, door. When suddenly, my legs didn't do what I wanted them to do.

I had completely stopped in place, and even though I pushed my legs to move, I stayed in the same spot. I looked down, and my jaw dropped at what I saw. My legs were off the ground, as in they weren't _touching_ the ground, they were floating in place. I let out sounds of desperation as I flailed my arms about, the door was _right in front of me,_ and my breath sped up again as I realized the hopelessness of my situation.

I then heard voices behind me.

"Deputy Goodwitch, ma'am. We're terribly sorry you had to get involved." I recognised the voice of the young guard from earlier.

"It is my job to defend this academy as well, think nothing off it. Though I am disappointed at the amount of effort it took to catch one intruder. You are all lucky that I was here, or else who knows what could've happened." I recognised the strictness of the voice, though that wasn't a good thing as it just made me feel more hopeless by the second.

"We are all sorry, Deputy head mistress!" I heard the voices of quite a few guards say in unison. Wow, so she even has that effect on adults.

I saw some guards walk in front of me, dressed in blue uniforms, and point their glowing guns in my direction. I winced on reflex, but when nothing came I opened my eyes. Feeling myself shift in mid-air, I was spun around and came face to face with one of the first characters from the show.

It was like looking at a lion, beautiful yet frightening at the same time. Majestic green eyes look into my own with a significantly intimidating expression, short vibrant blonde hair glowing somehow. She stood with her arms crossed and weapon in one hand, looking, well, regal in the way she presented herself. She looked fresh, even though it was god knows how late.

'What Aura can do, I suppose.'

"Now usually these guards would disarm you, apprehend you and hold you until myself or another suitable person could interview you and ascertain your motives. However, given the fact that I am here right now, and that I do not have any prior engagements, I will ask you now. _Why_ , are you here, and _what_ were you planning to do?" She spoke with ruthless efficiency, the kind that demanded respect, and answers.

Welp, wouldn't be the first time I'd disappointed someone.

"Dunno'." I shrugged, hey, it was the truth.

She looked at me with an expression that was neither amused nor pleased, "Really, you don't know?" I nodded, still in mid-air. "Then I suppose you were running towards the student living quarters for no reason then?" She spoke like she was talking to an idiot, which kind've sent a spike of anger through me, but I wasn't about to do anything that could get me killed. Like lying.

"I thought I could hide in there." I didn't act surprised when she told me it was the dorm, because I can't act in this situation.

Her expression seemed to have some sort of exasperation mixed in, "So, you don't know why you're here, in Beacon academy, when the only way to get here is by bullhead from vale," another spike of anger shot through me at that. "And you were running towards the 3rd year dorms because you thought you could hide in there." I nodded, slightly peeved.

Glynda Goodwitch held a hand to her head and sighed, "Two things: one is that this dorm contains 3rd year hunters in training, who are _much_ better trained then the guards," I heard one of the guards behind me cough at that, "Going in there wouldn't have helped you hide, it would have ultimately _aided_ in your capture." She was _definitely_ talking to an idiot now, "And secondly, if you did not get a bullhead, how did you get here, did you scale the cliff?" I have a feeling this is therapeutic for her, after having to deal with kids all day.

The reminder of the dorm, something that she _had_ to have known about, and her talking like it didn't exist sent another spike of anger through me. That's three strikes, and my common sense is out.

"I got here through somewhere you left people to die, _Glynda!_ " I sneered, my already shaky composure cracking.

She didn't seem to react at first, before her brain caught up and her eyes widened, with a flick of her wrist, I was dumped on the ground, and before I could even look up two guards held both of my arms. Glynda looked down at me "Take him somewhere he can't escape, and confiscate his weapon and items. I will speak to the headmaster tomorrow about what will be done." And with one final sneer in my direction, the only outwardly hostile expression she had made that night, she turned heel walked off.

The two guards pulled me along, basically dragging me. When I didn't walk with them, the guard on my right pulled my sore arm with a call of, "Come on, punk." Which caused me to hiss in pain and look up at him with disdain.

Fuck it, I was already fucked anyway.

"That's not what your mother calls me," I said with a smirk, causing him to turn his head in my direction, "Nah, she calls me _daddy_." The guard looked _pissed_ after that, causing me to snicker, until I looked back at him and met a fist directed into my face.

Sudden pain, then everything went dark.

* * *

 **Author's note**

 **Ok, so before I say anything, I would just like to explain myself. Turns out July is my worst month ever for projects, not just because of my birthday. Nah, I also have three friends with birthdays that month. Two of them one day apart, add that to the fact my internet was down sporadically during the month, and that I use online word, and you've got writing hell.**

 **I would also like to apologies, which you probably knew was coming, and say that no, this story is not dead and won't die anytime soon.**

 **So, this Chapter had some very minor hints towards future plot points, including a sentence that probably has some readers confused. Don't worry, all will be revealed. Also, I think Frankie's personality really came out in this one, because he had other characters to bounce off of for a short time.**

 **Also, I'm thinking of starting off every chapter with an excerpt from Oobleck's books, tell me if you like it.**

 **Things are really going to get interesting next chapter, so stick around for that, and in regards to schedule, just know I always aim for a week, and I hope I get better at it as time goes on.**

 **You know the deal with reviews.**

 **Your Author, Zakku**


	5. Locked up

**Duality**

 **Chapter 5**

 **Locked up**

 _Grimm, the unknown enemy_

 _What are Grimm?_

 _Never has a question so simple had so much weight behind it. What are Grimm? The short answer is that we don't know, even the most well-versed professors in Grimm studies have said that there has been no progress in a concrete origin for Grimm, are they animals, our natural predators on the food chain? A collection of humanities negative energy given form? Puppets from the gods sent to punish humans? We just don't know, however there are things we_ do _know._

 _Grimm are creatures made of pure black, with some sort of white mask or white bone like appendage somewhere on their body, as of this book all classified Grimm have been observed to have either of these. All Grimm have been observed to be attracted to negative emotion, be that anger, sadness, stress, or anything else under that classification. It is theorized that they have an inbuilt way to detect the hormones that are released during these emotions, it used to be that people thought they could smell fear, however as more Grimm were discovered, many without something even close to a nose, that theory was disproved._

 _Studying Grimm is tricky at best and absolutely infuriating at worst; trapping something as simple minded as a beowolf is nowhere near an easy task, between the primal need for the hunt, massive build, even more ridiculous strength, and the fact that as soon as a Grimm is delivered a fatal blow it starts to dissolve; a process we can't even postpone let alone stop all together. We as a species have only been able to capture the most average or weak of Grimm which, while that may be quite a few, still requires teams of hunters, as when one Grimm is engaged, many more are probably around the corner._

 _Grimm are sorted into different in classification by threat level, there are currently five different grimm levels, and when I describe a Grimm, there threat level is the first thing you will learn after the name. The levels of Grimm are as follows:_

 _Level 1_

 _Small and simple Grimm, similar to Vermin or other types of pest, if not slightly bigger. By themselves even civilian farmer on the frontier can deal with them, using a shotgun or any other firearm available Is recommended however. It is still advised to be careful, as a swarm is still as deadly as any other Grimm swarm, no matter the size._

 _Level 2_

 _Bigger than your average level 1 Grimm, however what bumps some Grimm up to this tier is there ability to perform rudimentary pack tactics, such as signaling for allies. When encountering most level 2 type Grimm, you are more at risk of being swarmed on sight, which that alone elevates them to this level. An example of this would be Creeps, who burrow underground._

 _Level 3_

 _Level 3 Grimm are hunter only, under no circumstance should a civilian engage any Grimm of this level, especially without Aura. As a side note, I would say any type of Grimm of any type of level should not be engaged unless absolutely necessary. If there is a hunter available, then please have them assist, I know this is not always the case, but there is no need for unnecessary risk. Back onto level 3 Grimm; Grimm of this level have been observed to have higher based animal intelligence, one of the leading examples being beowolves, who are never alone and hunt in packs most commonly and have separation tactics, as well as good tracking outside of their regular ability to sense negativity. Another example would be most aquatic based Grimm, who mostly travel in schools._

 _Level 4_

 _If you could see, there has been a trend in the levels up till now, in that the more deadly they are in a group, the higher the threat level is._

 _Until you get to level 4._

 _Level 4 Grimm are mostly solitary creatures, they hunt on their own and rarely call for help, and even if there are more Grimm there, a lot of them tend to ignore the smaller creatures. What really sets these Grimm apart is their sheer size and power, miles above the Grimm of the previous level. Not only that, they also show a remarkable upgrade in regards to intelligence from their lower ranked counterparts, in the rare and unfortunate instance that hunters have gone up against a level 4 Grimm and multiple level 3 or 2, there have been multiple reports of the larger ones waiting until the smaller Grimm have worn them down, or even landed a decent hit, before going in for the kill. Multiple hunters must be present to deal with a level 4 Grimm, as their teamwork would be invaluable against the monster's strength and intelligence. Examples of Level 4 Grimm would be Giant Nevermore, Deathstalkers, or Ursa majors._

 _Level 5_

 _With age comes experience, and experience is power._

 _Level 5 Grimm have this in abundance; old as the kingdom itself, as tall as its highest building, stronger than its strongest weapon. The amount of ancient Grimm ever seen barely goes into the double digits, yet each creature looks like it could destroy a country by itself, and yet they don't, they wander, destroying the landscape in their wake not in a mission to wipe out life, but as if they are searching for something, something that they have not been able to find for centuries if the oldest records are to be believed. A level 5 Grimm has never been slain, we can say that for certain, as the known ones are kept on watch, so the absence of even one would cause a massive commotion. We know not of how intelligent they are, as the most we see of them is wandering place to place, and interacting with them could have catastrophic consequences. Many say that the creatures are on standby, and that once they find what they are looking for, they will descend on humanity with the thirst of their young._

 _Gods help us if they do._

* * *

He knew exactly how she liked her tea

She had expensive tastes, not surprisingly; Atlas's finest, something he was sure costed quite a bit of lien as far as tea went. The water was boiled, then left out to sit for 10 minutes so that it could be consumed right away; the milk was fully skimmed and from atlas also, and he knew this was one of the only things she indulged in, mostly because it probably reminded her of home. Two and a half teaspoons of sugar, no more no less, were added, and the stirring began, he would alternate between soft up and down motions and a gentle rotation, something he had seen her doing the first time they had ever sat down for tea, before taking his spoon out and lightly tapping it on the inside of the fine valean china. Setting the spoon down on the tray, he lifted the cup and saucer set, and presented it to his companion.

Weiss excepted the cup with a pleased yet slightly exasperated look on her face, "You know, you are _my_ guest James, I should probably serve the tea." As she said this, she lifted her cup up to her lips and too a refined sip.

James had an easy going smile on his face, "I apologies, it's just that you bought everything here, and had the grace to invite me; I had to show my gratitude somehow." He let out a chuckle as he took a sip of his own tea. After their morning heart to heart, Weiss had come up to him the following day and asked if he wouldn't mind joining her in morning tea, not one to miss an opportunity, he had graciously excepted.

When he had inquired about where this idea came from, she had been confident in her words, " _You were right about what you said the other morning, and so I thought I'd start spending the mornings doing something I enjoy, to make me feel more like I'm doing this for_ me."

He was hoping that this would be the outcome, because if he was being honest with himself, he didn't spend that much time with Weiss in comparison to the other girls. He and Blake had their little library sessions, Pyrrah was his partner, Ruby he could hang out with whenever he wanted, and Yang... Well bottom line was, his mornings were free and he didn't have a private time with Weiss before this.

Two birds: one stone.

Weiss gave a huff he could tell held fondness, before giving him a coy look over her teacup, "Always a gentleman, aren't we?"

"Especially for you, milady."

Her cheeks colored slightly over her cup, though he couldn't actually see her mouth, he guessed she was smiling.

"Hmm, is that so? Well if that _is_ the case, would said gentleman like to accompany this heiress to dinner this weekend?" the cup still didn't move from her mouth.

James's smile widened, and he leaned forward, one hand on his cheek," I dunno, I don't really know this 'heiress'..." he saw her tense, "But if _Weiss_ would like to go to dinner, I'd be a fool to say no."

Weiss's form relaxed, and she lowered her cup back onto the saucer, revealing a beautiful smile on her face," I guess you would be, wouldn't you?" they smiled at each other, the sun shining overhead. After a short while they lapsed into idle conversation, where they would go, how their classes were going, and other such things, when a passing conversation between two girls caught James's ear.

"Do you hear about the guy they caught trying to sneak into the 3rd year dorm?" Girl one said to girl two as they walked down the path next to their table.

"Wasn't that just a rumor though? Did that really even happen?"

"Well Macy got it out of one of the day shift security guards, so it's got to be true! I mean ugh, thinking about what that pervert was thinking of makes me shiver." Girl one groaned.

"Pfft, perverted and stupid, why even break into a huntsman school, it's like you're _asking_ to be caught." Girl two scoffed.

"Well I heard he..." at this point the girls rounded the nearest corner, leaving James's hearing range. Weiss noticed his distraction and set down her tea cup.

"Ah, that. Yang was going on about it earlier, though I'm sure it's just conjectures and gossip at best, I mean who would break into a hunter academy and then go for the most dangerous place first?" Weiss scoffed.

James kept his eyes off to the side teacup in hand, and thought about what he just heard, someone had broken into beacon, possibly one of the most secure places on the continent. Sure, Cinder was going to attempt to also, but she would then proceed to destroy the entire city, so she was far from the average thief. Was it...? No that wouldn't be until the dance, and that was far enough away, also from what he heard said person had tried to enter a dorm, and he was male. Still...

Better safe than sorry.

James lifted his cup to his lips, taking a long sip and draining the rest of the contents, it really was good tea, shame he wasn't going to be able to enjoy it. With a quick glance at his scroll, he looked back up at Weiss and shifted into an apologetic smile.

"Wow, didn't realise the time, I'm sorry Weiss I have a prior engagement that I completely forgot about, probably because this has been so enjoyable." James pushed his seat backwards and stood up.

Weiss's expression dropped slightly, though she seemed accepting of his excuse, "Ah, I guess there's no helping it then, but I do agree that this was quite enjoyable, same time tomorrow?" Weiss looked up at him with a shy yet hopeful smile that seemed somewhat out of place on her face.

James walked around the table, gentle grabbed her free hand and laid a kiss on the back if it, "Of course, and this weekend too."

James didn't have to look up to know she was blushing.

* * *

James sauntered through the automatic doors of the Beacon gym, which seemed to have a sparse few students about - probably due to the time of morning – and looked around, before the sound of impact on leather met his ears. Following the sound led him to the person creating the noise, who was also the person he was looking for.

Yang Xiao-long was many things: Hot headed, violent, a prankster, a protective older sister. One thing she wasn't however, was easily predictable. He would have guessed that she was an avid gym enthusiast, however he would have never guessed she would get up so early, sometimes earlier then Weiss, to go to the gym. With the information given in the show, he would assume that she was a slacker with talent and a powerful semblance, who put just enough work in and nothing more.

Who she actually was, was a completely different story. She put in work, she was in the gym every other day, constantly maintaining her muscles and sparring, and if she couldn't find a willing sparring partner, she'd fight training bots on the hardest difficulty she could take. She made sure her fundamentals were solid, throw in-born talent and a ridiculously powerful semblance on top of that...

And you had the beast that was Yang Xiao-long.

As James watched her hit the punching bag constantly, clad in nothing but a tank top and criminally short shorts, he also admitted to himself that she was very...

Tempting.

He stood there for a while, enjoying the show, before clearing his throat to get her attention, she seriously would've kept going otherwise. With one last hook she sent the punching bag swinging backwards, catching it with her hand as she turned towards him with a grin.

"'Sup blondie?"

"Nothing much, Blondie, just heard you were in the know about Beacon's uninvited guest." He said with an easygoing smile.

Yang's eyes shone as soon as he mentioned it, "Uh-huh? Well I'm a bit forgetful, maybe I can jog my memory if you do me... A small favor." Her smile was devious to say the least.

James nodded, "Sure, whatever you want." Wasn't like it could be anything compromising to him anyway.

Yang fist pumped, "Sweet," she then stepped away from the punching bag, and walked past him. James followed automatically, making sure he was just behind her as he did so. "So a 3rd year girl got it out of a bodyguard she knew personally, how personally is a question for another time," she wiggled her eyebrows at him," but apparently some guy was somehow in the courtyard of beacon _way_ after closing hours. Weird thing is, they checked the visiting logs, and it wasn't some visitor that decided to stow away, so no one knows how he got there."

"Could've just snuck past security."

"Pffft, do that and get caught when there's less people and its dark out? Doesn't seem likely, though weird shit does happen. We know it's a guy, no idea whether he's Faunus or Human, and not much else. Oh!" Yang snapped her fingers, "and he wasn't wearing shoes."

James raised an eyebrow at her as they entered through an automatic door, and Yang just smiled back over her shoulder. "A lot of people were worried about it being White Fang, with all the stuff that's been going on, me too actually, but I doubt they would go from robbing a dust shipment with Roman Torchwick, to sending one guy to infiltrate Beacon, badly at that." Yang spun around and held her arms out with a grin, "And here we are!"

They had stopped in one of the many sparing arenas, just at the edge of the ring in fact. James could see where this was going, and gave Yang an inquisitive stare, "You want to spar?"

"Couldn't find a sparring partner, not many people out this early, and the ones that were ran away from me; it's like they're scared of getting beat."

"I think they're scared of the broken bones that sparring with you might cause."

"Hmph, wimps." Yang huffed as she hopped onto the ring, doing some stretches, "No weapons, no armor, hell I won't even use my semblance, just a straight up fist fight, till we break Aura or give up. Gotta keep the basics sharp, eh?"

James steeled himself as he silently stepped into the arena, knowing there was no way out of this. Yang waited for him to do his own stretches before assuming her boxing stance, fists at the ready. He could see the excited glint in her eyes as he entered his own stance, one fist at chest level and the other by the side of his face.

For a few seconds they stared at each other, neither moving, until the unspoken gun went off and Yang _moved_.

She closed the gap between them in a split second, throwing out a right hook that even though James caught in his guard, still pushed him pack slightly and left his arm stinging. James threw out a retreating jab that Yang easily ducked under and delivered two lightning fast jabs of her own, the first one James caught again, however the second one broke through and grazed his chin. Pressing his weakened defense, Yang stepped inwards, feinting a right hook to the face, but instead going for his neglected body.

The force of the blow pushed James back quite a way, skidding across the arena as he felt his aura absorb the damage, doing nothing for his aching stomach however. James tensed as he locked eyes with Yang again, he let out a breath and loosened his body, letting his hands fall into a more relaxed position at his side. On the other side of the arena, Yang was looking at him with a cocked eyebrow, and he gave her a smirk in response before beckoning her with one hand. Taking the hint, Yang made her approach cautiously, wary of his sudden demeanor and stance shift, and as soon as she got close enough, James saw her eyes shift _slightly_ to the right.

Yang closed the miniscule distance left in a flash, delivering a left hook, however this one went wide to the right, allowing James to step to the left and avoid it. Undeterred, Yang launched a jab that went just over his shoulder, then another hook that James avoided, then another miss. Dodge, miss, dodge, miss and repeat.

James could see the frustration in her eyes, so when she delivered a haymaker that left her massively over-extended, he was prepared, and used the chance to slip under her guard. He tackled her to the ground, where they proceeded to wrestle, and for a brief moment James was winning, but Yang's superior strength proved true, and it ended with him on his back and her straddling his chest.

Yang looked down at him with a simultaneously smug and exhausted face, cocky smirk in place on her slightly flushed cheeks. James let out a wheezy chuckle, "Guess you won."

Yang's heavy breathing slowed down slightly, "Yeah... I did..." And for a moment there was silence, as the two sat there catching their breath, before Yang spoke up again, breath steady, "And I think, as the winner, I deserve a prize."

James cocked an eyebrow as he looked up at her red face, "A prize? What prize?" Yang let out a coy smile.

" _This_ prize." And she lowered her lips to meet his.

* * *

OK, let's go over this one more time.

Why was I here? I got lost.

How did I get here? I got lost on an elevator.

How did I know about the dorm? I got lost in said dorm and found documents.

I had been spending the last hour or so trying to guess what questions I would be asked and how to answer them, as when I had woken up with a pounding headache for the third time in a row –God I hope this is just horrible luck and doesn't become a thing- I had found myself inside what I recognized as an interrogation room similar to the one Ruby was in at the beginning of season one. I used my lucrative power of common sense to deduce that if I was in an interrogation room, I would be interrogated, so I'm trying to work up convincing lies/half-truths to tell Glynda when she came to visit me.

I had set the ground rule that under no circumstance, if I could help it, I would not reveal I was from another world - god that sounds weird. Why you ask? Because if Ozpin found out, he would find some way to use me, just like he did to everyone else, just like he did to Team RWBY, Pyrrah and every other 'talented' student at his disposal.

God, I hate Ozpin.

He would find a way, try to use me to contact home, get aid, maybe try and seal Salem off in my world and doom it to save this one, I wouldn't put it past the bastard.

I had been in here a long time.

And I may or not have been in a constant state of anxiety and panic.

Maybe my paranoia was fueling my already budding hatred of Ozpin, or maybe it was the pounding in my skull where that fucker of a guard punched me – Maybe my fault but fuck that guy anyway. Speaking of...

I lifted my hand up to my left eye, yelping as I touched tender swollen skin, cursing, I banged my hand on the table in frustration, before cursing again and clutching my hand. Fucking metal table fucking bullshit.

I was locked up in a pitch-black room about be interrogated with a probable black eye and a headache and I still don't have my _fucking shoes -_

 _S_ o enraptured in my own anger, I didn't react to sound of the automatic door opening, nor the sound of footsteps leading up to my table, and the sound of someone clearing their throat caused me to snap up from nursing my hand and grumbling obscenities.

Stood across from me was none other than Glynda Goodwitch herself, arms crossed and a heavy frown upon her face. Rubbing my hand, I watched as she scraped the chair across the ground and situated herself across from me, I could only imagine her crossing her legs under the table.

She stared directly into my eyes for a brief moment, before speaking in a sharp tone, "You're lucky we haven't called the police yet, Mr...?" she looked at me over her glasses.

Shit. Real name or fake name? Real name or fake name? Real name or fake na-!?

"Frank." Half way it was then.

She raised one eyebrow at me, "Frank? No last name?" it was pretty obvious she didn't believe me. Well fuck you too bitch, it was technically true.

Well, in for a penny... "Yep, Orphan."

She had no reason to believe anything I said anyway so it literally did not matter what I did say.

She paused for a second, before bringing something up from beside her chair, "Well then, Mr. 'Frank', seems you've caused quite the ruckus;" she lightly tossed a clipboard onto the table, "trespassing, aggravated assault, attempted breaking and entering, really we should've called the authorities already and handed you off, however..." She crossed her arms, "I want to know what you meant by what you said when we found you," Somehow her eyes narrowed even more.

It took my brain a short while to catch up, but eventually it dawned on me. Ok Frankie, we prepared for this.

I set my hands facing downwards on the table, "Don't act like you don't know." With this I could see a vein bulge on her forehead, turns out she was angrier than she first appeared, "I saw the dorm out in the forest, I read the only report there, you left those kids out there to die!" My hands clenched as I spoke.

There was silence for a few seconds as I watched her face morph through several different emotions – first angry confusion, then angry thought, angry realization, - before finally settling on looking at as if I was the dumbest person in the world.

"Do you mean..." She started slowly and deliberately, "The prototype dorm in the emerald forest, the dorm put into the care of _fully qualified_ hunter Vert Baker, the dorm that, within the first week, was left behind as soon as a malfunction was found during one of its _many_ maintenance sessions? Because last time I checked, all the students that volunteered for that experiment were safe, and had graduated beacon academy years ago, _alive_ if that's not clear."

My eyes widened, and I grit my teeth as the hot wash of embarrassment came over me as I realized. The sheer exasperation that she was looking at me with made my cheeks colour and I broke eye contact.

"How you even found yourself in the emerald forest so ill equipped and with no aura baffles me in and off it-self, so please, enlighten me."

I shifted my eyes over to the table, "I got lost." Back to old reliable.

"You got _lost_?"

"Yep."

"Then how did you-?"

"I got lost in the elevator."

I couldn't so much see as _hear_ the vein on her head bulge once more, and I could hear her take a deep breath, no doubt about to start another lecture, when the shifting of a door interrupted her and I heard a much deeper voice speak up.

"Now now Glynda, no need to berate the boy even further, I'm sure the black eye and the interrogation have more than driven the point home." The headmaster of Beacon academy himself walked through the door, mug in one hand and cane in the other, "I think I'd actually like a turn to talk to our... surprise guest."

"But sir, are you sure you have time to-"

"I'm sure the paperwork can wait an hour or two, especially when it concerns the safety of my school."

I saw Glynda look at Ozpin with a small frown, before letting out a sigh and slowly nodding. With a screech, she pushed her chair back and with one final reproachful look sent my way, exited the room, leaving me with Ozpin.

I don't know if this is an upgrade.

"She's actually not usually this irate," by the time I had looked back over, Ozpin was already in the seat across from me somehow, "It was actually your comment about her leaving people to die that got her in such a mood, she takes her jobs as both a huntress and teacher very seriously."

He took a sip of his beverage.

"Now, Mr... Frank I believe you said your name was? Are you with the white fang?"

Wow... "That was blunt."

Ozpin gave me a small smile, "it's always best to ask the simplest, but most important questions first."

I scoffed, "Well... _sir_... No, I am not. I mean, do I look like a faunus to you?"

"Yes."

I did a double take, "Wait, seriously? But I'm not, how could I be? No tail, no ears, no animal powers. I'm human."

"Well I'm sorry for assuming, it's just what with your eye and everything, it was an easy mistake to-"

"What, my black eye? I don't think getting punched turns you into a faunus."

"No, your other eye, the one with the scar."

Scar? What sca-? Wait... so the beowolf scratch left a scar on my eye? That's depressing, not like I was that attractive to begin with. But...

"How does that make me a faunus?"

Ozpin gave me an interested look, held his hand to his face for a second, before seeming to think of something. He grabbed his cane from where it was leaning against the table, taking the shiny orb at the end and rubbing his sleeve on it. I watched it change colour from a darkish green, to see through. He stood up from the table and made his way towards me, my eyes glued to him, before stopping in front of me and presenting the end of the cane.

I looked up at him, he nodded towards the cane and wiggled it slightly. Confused, I looked into the clear orb, wincing at the sight of my black eye being as bad as I thought it was, before looking for this scar on my-

"What the fuck!?"

I leapt backwards out my chair in surprise, somehow even startling Ozpin slightly, my heart racing and my jaw slack. Ozpin still held the cane forward, "I'm guessing this is a new addition for you?"

Slowly, I walked back towards Ozpin, with a look of silent panic built on my face; I brought my face closer to the crystal. I had hoped it was a mistake, a trick of the light or my mind playing tricks on me, however a second look confirmed it. It was so easy to see the contrast, because even with the purple bruising on my left, you could still see the brown of my eye. However, tracing the scar on the right side of my face...

Led to a red iris with a black slit pupil.

My breathing sped up rapidly, my face tightened, and my hands locked up, and my chest hurt...

 _Beep Beep_

 _NO_

I clutched my hand to my chest, and just had enough time to see Ozpin's eyes widen before I collapsed to my knees, gasping for air.

 _Beep Beep_

 _Beep_

 _Beep_

 _Beep_

 _Beep_

I let out a pained choke, and I thought I could feel someone touching me, and hear someone shouting, before my senses dulled, all I could here-

 _Beep_

Was that familiar sound.

 _Beep_

 _Beep_

 _Beep_

 _...B e e p._

* * *

 **Author's note**

 **Well...**

 **Let me just say at first that I'm sorry, I know that it's been too long, way too long but... life happened, and it happened hard. To be honest I doubted I could keep up the pace with weekly updates when I first set the goal, but I needed something to keep me busy during a dark time in my life, so I thought 'I'll get used to it' you can see how that went. To be honest I don't know why I'm even justifying it, im not sure anyone really cares about this fic, though that's kinda rude to say. I just felt like I owed some type of explanation, so there it is.**

 **If you read this, thank you. I want to write more and I will, just don't expect regularly scheduled updates, eh?**

 **Anyway, this fic is back, and I'll make sure to update sometime during the next two years, probably earlier.**

 **Criticism is always appreciated.**

 **Your author, Zakku**


	6. Not so sweet dreams

**Duality**

 **Chapter 6**

 **Not so sweet dreams.**

 _Beep_

 _Beep_

 _Beep_

 _The rhythmic sound of the machine telling me I was still alive buzzed around my ears as I looked out the window. The day was bright and the weather hot, something outside of the norm for England, which made it feel doubly so like the weather itself was mocking me with its positive nature._

 _I sat in my white bed and watched the people milling around outside, nurses wheeling patients around to enjoy the sun, people sitting on benches talking, even the odd person looking down or sitting on their own._

 _I felt like I could relate to those people the most._

 _The sound of a chair moving and the rustling of a bag sounded out behind me, though I didn't turn around, and for a few moments afterwards there was silence, before a very familiar voice spoke up._

" _The doctor said that she's just got to run a few more tests, and then you're free to go."_

" _Why though? Not like anything's changed in the last two years." I replied, back still turned._

" _Well they said that the more they monitor it, the more they can-"_

" _Can they fix it?" I cut her off, and I could hear the sound of her mouth audibly shutting," They keep telling me how they can treat it, keep me alive longer, but not once have they ever told me how they can fix it." I clenched the bedsheets in my hand._

" _They're going to find a way," the way her voice hitched caused me to grit my teeth, and I clenched my hands so hard I drew blood._

 _I knew it wasn't her fault, she didn't cause this, and she was trying to convince herself as much as me that something could be done. Parents never want anything to be wrong, so they can ignore the problems that could be there, and I didn't have any signs before the boiling point. The doubt was there though, that if she had just taken me to a check-up once when I was younger, just once, then they could've done something, could've stopped it before it got to the point of no return. As it was now, they could delay it, but not stop it._

 _So the hole in my heart just kept getting bigger._

 _I had had my first attack when I was 17, and to this day it's still the worst one I've ever had, blood coming up through my throat and burning my mouth, the dizziness, the excruciating pain. It was the first sign that I'd ever had, and apparently it was because the hole had been slowly growing ever since I was born, being completely unnoticeable at first, but once it got that bad, it accelerated and couldn't be stopped._

 _As it was now, without medical attention I'd already be dead, there was the good thing about being in a country with free medical care. If we were in America, or some other country, I'd have probably killed myself already, to keep my mum out of the crippling debt having to pay constant medical expenses would have caused._

 _Or maybe that was just an excuse._

 _At this point I wasn't paying attention to what was outside the window, just focusing on looking at anything other than the face of my mother, "I'm dying, ma, and there isn't anything they can do about it."_

" **That...would be... troubling...for usssssss.** "

 _Instead of the voice of my mother, a deep, guttural, voice that seemed to struggle and linger on every word answered me, causing me to jolt harshly and whip my head around. Where I expected to see the face of my mother, I instead stared into a face of bone white, with piecing red eyes, it had no mouth, just lines on the bottom of its face where a mouth would go. It looked like a mask connected to a bubbling shadow, constantly shifting and changing shape._

" _What... What the fuck are you!?"_

" _ **We...are you."**_

* * *

"He's a stranger, Ozpin."

"A stranger that just had a heart attack in one of the interrogation rooms Glynda."

"But still a stranger, a stranger that randomly appeared with knowledge of a secret project, and one that gave tentative answers at best to simple questions!"

Ozpin spared a glance at the brown-haired man lying in the closest bed to him in the infirmary, "The boys barely a threat, he was barely able to irritate the guards, let alone us or any of the students, and I'd rather not have a person die right in front of me when I can prevent it."

Glynda narrowed her eyes, "I wasn't saying let him die, I was protesting your inevitable idea to let him stay here, among our students." Ozpin took a sip of his cup.

"Wouldn't leaving him be, be the same as letting him die?" Glynda crossed her arms and her eyebrow rose. "Someone this young, and not obviously out of shape, having a heart attack of this severity speaks of an underlying problem, and not just a one-time health mishap. If we were to leave him alone, in apparent unfamiliar circumstances, then surely, he would experience an attack like this again, the next one probably being his last."

Glynda's grip on her crop loosened; that couldn't just be it, if Ozpin really wanted to, he could've just dropped this person off at the nearest hospital with the bills payed in advance, there had to be a reason... Wait, "It's his eye isn't it?" Ozpin slowly turned in the direction of the bed and took a sip of his coffee. Of course, she had slain enough Grimm to recognise the colour and shape, and she had also been all over remnant, and had never seen a faunus with either eye similar, let alone just one.

Ozpin's gaze stayed on the bed, "It's not just that," he rubbed the end of his cane with his thumb, "Taking into account what he said about being an orphan, with the medical issue he seemed to have, how could he have possibly survived in Grimm infested territory long enough to find himself lost this close to Beacon? Disregarding the already ridiculous assumption that he was able to survive with no aura, being in an environment with constant life-threatening danger would've caused this issue to rear its head much earlier, if not killing him outright, then leading to a Grimm taking advantage." Ozpin took another sip of his, unfortunately cold, coffee, and frowned.

"There are obviously things he is not telling us, enough that letting him go probably wouldn't be in our best interests."

Glynda sighed, "I wish you wouldn't make me play guessing games before telling me these things." She turned her gaze towards the bed also, "...You don't think _she_ is involved, do you?"

"As always, I am hoping not. History has proven otherwise most times however."

There was another pregnant pause before Glynda spoke up again, "And why do you keep calling him a boy? He looks to at least be in his twenties."

Ozpin let out a chuckle, "Isn't everyone young compared to me?" Glynda rolled her eyes, "Mostly because he seems to have the look of someone who time has forced to grow up faster. I think he's actually younger than you think, I know because I have experience in the matter."

* * *

Cold blue eyes stared through the window in the infirmary door, one foot at the base keeping it open a slight fraction. James leaned against the back of the blank eyed guard that was hiding him from view, processing the information he had heard. His investigation had led him here, but only after a few hours of waiting. Yang's information had been helpful, the extra gift also, but he still had no actual leads. That is, until lunch, in which the lunch hall had been abuzz with gossip pertaining to an event he had not been privy to. Apparently, multiple students that weren't in class for various reasons had witnessed a person being rushed to Beacon's medical centre.

No one had actually gotten a good look at the person, but he had been in this world long enough to know that when things like this happen in quick succession, they were usually connected.

This was a Show after all.

It wasn't hard to find the area this mystery person had been moved to, all he had to do was find the place with the most guards. He had been able to get most of the way with just saying he was going to a see a recovering friend, and they let him right through. The only complication had been the two guards outside the actual room.

James looked towards the guard on the right of the door, who had a sliver of drool dripping down his face as he stared at nothing.

That had been easy to deal with.

Just how incompetent were these guys?

He turned his attention back towards the point of actual interest as he heard the conversation start again.

"How are you going to handle him staying? If he agrees that is."

"It's most likely that he'll agree, given his circumstances. I think that he'll understand his situation even better than us. He'll know he has no other choice. As for now, we just offer him a place to stay, provide meals, keep him under surveillance. We'll have one of the students keep an eye on him, offer extra credit. Should help build his trust in us, and eventually we'll hear his story from his own mouth."

He saw Glynda sigh, "Even if I hadn't already expressed my discomfort with exposing him to our students, are you sure you want him here for an extended period of time? He could be _Her_ puppet and just not know it, which could compromise us massively."

For a second Ozpin looked much older than he had any right to, "If that is the case, we will do what is necessary, for now we try and learn what we can. I'd rather do this as peacefully as possible, especially given the publicity this entire incident has gained. I'd rather not the students think less of us either."

There was a brief moment of silence, before he saw Glynda's shoulders drop slightly, "I wish there was an easier way too, but I see the logic in your method. Alright, I'll check the registry to see what student we can trust with this. What should we tell them?"

"Tell them that he is an important guest and leave it at that, that should limit the question towards us anyway."

She nodded, before turning away and walking towards the door, by the time she had reached it James was already around the corner and out of sight. He heard her snap her fingers in the drooling guard's face, causing him to wake with a "Huh?" before giving a harrumph.

"Pay more attention! I want no-one in this room other than me and the headmaster, am I clear?" He heard the guard fumble before giving a 'yes ma'am', before the sound of clicking heels sounded down the opposite direction from him.

When the sound was completely gone, James held a hand to his chin and considered his options. This was definitely new, as he had no memory of this ever happening in any capacity, which made it _unpredictable;_ he disliked unpredictable. Also, this would increase security around Beacon, and that was always bad for his plans, as well as this person apparently having something about them that connected them to Salem, as that was the only Her that fit this context. Overall summary: Unpredictable, dangerous, detrimental, would have to be eliminated.

It would have to be soon, very soon, before they had a chance to tighten security. Though soon was probably the perfect time to do it, considering the man was on life support. It would be child's play to make it seem like there was an equipment malfunction, or that he had just straight up died.

And dead men were very predictable.

* * *

 _The scenery around me shifted as soon as it said those words, I was suddenly standing, and everything around me was a white void. The shear contrast of this creature just added to my discomfort._

" _W-_ _what_ _?"_

" _ **We... are... you... You... are... we..."**_ _it forced out, yet its mask never moved. It seemed like the mass of black converged upon it, twisting and convulsing in so many ways, like it was trying to stay as one shape but couldn't._

" _ **No shine... No hurt... Got in... Learn... Know what am..."**_

 _My head started to hurt as I struggled to make sense of the creatures broken English, yet I couldn't piece it together, "What?"_

" _ **Us die... We die... Kept alive... all can do... weak..."**_

 _The headache progressively got worse as the thing spoke, and the constant shifting of its shadowy body hurt my eyes so much I closed them, lifting my hand to my head._

" _ **No want die... need strength... kill more of me... gain..."**_

 _My eyes snapped open at the word 'kill', "Wha-? Kill more of you? What even are you?"_

" _ **We are you."**_

 _I grit my teeth and averted my eyes from the thing, it wasn't making_ _sense._ _This might've just been a dream I was having while I'm dying, but something in me shouting in my head for answers_ _"What. Are. You."_

 _There was a brief moment of silence, and it was literal impossible to tell what it was thinking – if it even thought. And after a tense minute that could've been an hour, the thing decided to speak again._

" _ **We... Are Grimm."**_

 _I felt a quick jolt of utter horror, my mind flashing back to the brief but traumatizing experience I had with the monsters, one I had pushed to the back of mind to deal with other things. I took a step back as the thing in front of me suddenly became much more terrifying, "That's- That's impossible," I stuttered out._

" _ **We..."**_ _It started, before suddenly stopping. at first, I thought that it was just struggling with a new word, but as the silence stretched on, my concern grew, and I took another step back. I saw the mass of black, that had been writhing constantly, speed up, and I got the sense that the thing was panicking._

 _And then it was in my face._

" _ **Wake up."**_

 _My head jutted backwards on reflex, "Wha-"_

" _ **Wake up. Wake up wake up wake up wake up wake up wake up."**_

 _My head started to spin, and I felt my body falling. Falling, but the mask of the thing calling itself never leaving my field of view._

" _ **WAKE UP!"**_

My eyes snapped open, and the first thing I felt was cold steel on the side of my head. Something in my head screamed at me to roll to the side, which I complied with, but not before feeling a sharp pain go through my back with a 'zap' sound.

I hit the floor on the side of the bed with a curse, before rolling under the bed to avoid the footsteps I could hear coming around. My back still burning, I came out the other side, scrambling to my feet to get a good look at my assailant.

It was a guard, if the uniform said anything, dust taser in hand. My reaction upon seeing this was what I'd like to call expected.

"What the fuck was that for you prick!?"

Giving no reaction to my comment the guard turned around and fired his taser again, causing me to curse and duck, singing my hair. Hearing the squeaking of the bed as the guard started to climb over it, I then rolled back under the bed again, seeing the guard's legs from underneath. In a burst of inspiration, I brought both my fist together in a hammer blow to the back of his foot, bringing him off balance and causing him to fall to one knee.

When he dropped down, his face came into view. There was no acknowledgement of pain, and he made no sound.

There were just blank eyes staring at me.

'Fuck this,' I thought, grabbing the underside of the bed and using it as leverage to push myself out of the bottom side. I slid along the floor, hissing at the pain it caused my already injured back, and got up as fast as I could. The high pitch whine of electricity informed me that my assailant had also gotten up.

My mind screamed at me to move, but as I took two steps there was a 'zap', and my back lit on fire again. Pushing through the pain with a scream, I ran towards the door with a stumble. I tore it open, spinning and quickly shutting it behind me, another blast of electricity bouncing off of it as I slammed it shut. Turning around, I made to run down the corridor, but something stopped me in my tracks.

There, in front of me, lying on the ground, was another guard. He was slumped against the wall, his mouth open with foam coming out of it, his neck bright red with hand marks either side;

And his eyes glazed over and lifeless.

"O-oh..." I took a step back, "Oh sh-shit..." my eyes widened and my pupils dilated. I felt like I wanted to throw up, and I probably would have, if not for the sound of a handle clicking dragging me from the moment... To stare into the eyes of the blank face guard looking at me through the door window.

I yelled and ran.

"HELP!" I screamed as I sprinted around the corner, still barefoot, "SOMEONE HELP!" but no one came, there were no guards, no doctors, no one. The hallway was very dark too, so it was hard to see where I was stepping, but I couldn't care less as I tore down it. I could hear steps behind me in quick succession, so I knew he was chasing me.

Eventually, after I don't know how many turns, the hallway opened up into a reception area. I could see a receptionist with a bored look on her face sitting behind the reception desk clicking away. She spotted me as I sprinted up to her, and her eyes widened.

"Wha-"

"Call someone quick!" I yelled in her face, her head leaning back as I did so, "Some guy tried to kill me! He's chasing me, killed another guard too," I could see that she wanted to ask questions, "Please!" I pleaded desperately, tearing up slightly in frustration.

Her eyes softened and she nodded, picking up the phone and pressing a button. It ringed for a few seconds, in which I was dancing on my toes, looking around the room, before a mumbled deep voice sounded on the other end causing me to snap back to the woman as she replied.

"Hi-" There was a 'zap' that caused me to duck on reflex, however the receptionist wasn't so lucky, and the impeccably aimed bolt of electricity pinged her straight in the temple. I watched as her eyes rolled into the back of her head and her body convulsed, before she slammed into the keyboard in front of her.

Horrified, I looked in the direction that it came from, and saw the same blank faced guard standing there, his taser aimed at me. There was no pause between me looking at him and him pulling the trigger again, however there was no discharge when he did. I flinched backwards, but now saw that instead of the bright yellow glow coming from the crystal in between his taser, it was now a dull grey instead.

Thinking quickly, I grabbed the phone out of the possibly dead receptionist's hands – from which I could hear the confusion in the receiver's voice – and shouted, "SEND HELP" down the line, before chucking it at my assailant and sprinting towards the exit outside.

Was I leaving the woman to die? Maybe. But there was a chance she was already dead anyway. And just because I was dying didn't mean I wasn't afraid of it.

It just meant I wanted as much time as I could get.

Sprinting out of the automatic doors, I took two steps outside, before my legs stopped working.

Or, more accurately, before my legs spasmed by being hit by a blast of electricity.

Crying out, I landed chest first on the ground, trying to claw my way across the brick-laden path between the buildings, before I heard the sound of steps behind me.

My clawing got more desperate, but it wasn't enough, and I gave a cry as his foot slammed down on my leg. I looked back at him with wide eyes, and he aimed his gun at my head, before a green sleeved arm grabbed his wrist.

"Don't you think that's enough?"

* * *

Lie Ren wouldn't specifically call himself a night owl; he appreciated the day just as much, however as he sat cross legged on the grass and watched the moon and stars, he had to admit to himself that there was a certain mystique to it.

On his travels with Nora, when he had taken the first watch at night, he had taken to meditating and extending his senses. He closed his eyes and evened his breathing, letting his aura flow and permeate a small area around him. He had taken to coming out to the medical wing of beacon every so often, to keep his aura in shape.

A bit of a trek from the dorms, but the beauty of the gardens made up for it.

In his opinion, advanced aura control outside of semblances was an underused art. He had tried to impart this wisdom upon Nora, but the technique required patients, lots of it, and if there was one thing Nora didn't have, it was that.

'Maybe I should bring this up with the rest of the team...' he mused to himself, eyes still closed.

The shifting of a nearby automatic door, followed by a loud cry of pain snapped his eyes open, and he leapt up from his position on the grass. Pinpointing the origin of the sound, he made his way around to the entrance.

There was a man on the floor, with what he assumed to be a guard standing over him. The way he was pressing down on his leg seemed somewhat cruel, but it was the utter horror on his face that made him step in.

In a flash, Ren was at the guard's side, grabbing the wrist of the hand that had the gun in it. He saw the man on the floor's eyes widen as he turned to the guard and said, "Don't you think that's enough?"

There was no reaction from the guard's face, yet he could feel the guard struggling in his hand, but the weird thing was, it wasn't to reflexively get free like most, it felt like he was intensely trying to pull the trigger. He took one look at his face again, saw that the guard wasn't even acknowledging him, and that his eyes were also a blank grey, and made a snap decision.

With a flick of his wrist, Ren flung the gun out of the guard's hand, as well as using his other hand to push him back lightly, "Sir, that's enough, if he's an intruder we can escort him to the authorities, I'll even come along to make sure." Ren calmly stated, hands up in a placating manner.

The man stood still for a few seconds, face seemingly staring at nothing, before the voice of the one behind Ren spoke up, "H-he's crazy, man! He tried to kill me, and I think he killed two other people inside too!" His voice sounded hoarse.

Ren's eyes widened in brief surprise, before his semblance slammed down on the shock, leaving him in his usual calm state. Ren locked on to the guard in front of him, "Sir-"

And suddenly the guard charged, swinging wildly. It was abrupt, but still very slow for Ren's eyes, the first swing was sidestepped, the second caught and twisted behind the assailants back. Before he could do anything else, a palm strike to the temple knocked the guard out, causing him to go limp in Ren's hold.

Carefully laying the now dispatched attacker on the floor, Ren stood back up and turned towards the other person. Seeing their mouth opens slightly and their eyes were wide, Ren put on a light smile and reached a hand towards him.

"Are you okay?"

* * *

When she had agreed to search for a suitable student to watch over their 'guest', Glynda knew that it would end up with her staying in her office until the middle of the night. It always seemed to. After her regular duties as a teacher and headmistress, this was the only free time she had to do these other duties, quotation marks on 'free'.

She had made progress on narrowing it down, however. The increased workload of the later years was astronomical compared to that of the earlier years, so as much as a student would jump at the chance for extra _credit_ , she had to cross off teams from the third and fourth years.

That obviously left the second year and first year students, but she was having a bit of trouble narrowing it down.

'No, no, no, no, no, absolutely not, no, why are they even on this list?' she listed in her head, simultaneously crossing off names on the paper in front of her. For some reason, she couldn't find a suitable team from the second year, they were all just... _Average_. For Beacon students that is. Of course, there was team CFVY, but they were currently out on an extra credit assignment _because_ they were outstanding.

And so, it came down to the first years.

If she was being honest, the first years had it too lax as it was. She had talked to Ozpin multiple times about upping the intensity of their studies, in her opinion it often misleads students into believing that the later years would be laxer than they actually were. The number of students not being able to move on to the second year wasn't _that_ high, on the other hand students started dropping like flies during the transition from second year to third.

'It weeds out the unready' he had said last time, and every time, they had that conversation, and it wasn't that she necessarily disagreed with the point. It was more of the fact that they could be losing talented students that just hadn't been ready, their returns would be much higher if they made the transition more adjustable. The lazy and untalented would be left behind either way, but their job was to train students, not baby them for two years and _then_ get serious.

It was just unfair to the students.

During her internal rant, she had been crossing off names constantly, so much so that she was left with two teams. She sighed at the names left, 'Of course it's them' she mused. They _were_ quite outstanding experience wise, especially for first years, but as much as she disliked their uninvited guest, team RWBY was unpredictability incarnate, and she wouldn't wish that upon anyone.

Crossing off the team, Glynda turned her eyes towards the last team on the paper. Team JNPR actually seemed like quite the acceptable choice, no internal team conflict to speak of, as well as being sociable to another team on top of that. That spoke to the ability of their leader it seemed. Yes... Whilst Ms Nikos was reliable, she was somewhat socially stunted – a side effect of being famous – and that was important. Ms Valkyrie was out of the question, and Mr Lie came with Ms Valkyrie as a package deal it seemed. Good grades, outstanding social skills, great leadership abilities...

She had found her choice.

The ringing and vibrating of her scroll on her desk snapped her out of her musing, and she answered the call.

"Hello, Glynda Goodwitch speaking."

There was mumbling coming through for a few seconds, in which Glynda's expression seemed to drop, before the pin dropped and she shot up with a look of shock on her face.

"WHAT!?"

* * *

When James woke up that morning, he noticed that not only had Pyrrha gotten up before him and was already in the shower, but also the surprising fact that Nora was up as well. She was sitting up in bed, hair dishevelled, staring at the door. There was a look of extreme tiredness in her eyes, which made him think that she had barely gotten any sleep, if slept at all.

His curiosity peeked, James decided to speak up, "Nora?" he asked softly, injecting a hint of concern into his voice. When tired eyes turned onto him, he added, "Are you okay?"

She tried to give him a tired smile, one he could tell was faked, before her expression dropped and she turned back towards the door, "Ren didn't come back last night Jamesy."

James felt a bit of surprise, combing his memory of last night to try and remember if he had seen Ren at all. Of course, he knew about his meditation sessions, Ren was very forthcoming about it, but he usually came back to the dorm room just before curfew ended.

James had been asleep by then, drained from his... suggestions that night.

James decided to continue his questioning, "Have you been up all night?" she nodded and made an affirmative sound, "Why?"

"Can't sleep without Renny there."

James's eye twitched, "I'm sure he's fine Nora, he might've even fallen asleep outside while meditating. I would." he let out a chuckle.

Nora's head snapped back around to him, wide eyed, "How do you know? What if he was attacked by ninjas? Or Grimm? Or Grimm ninja sloths!?"

'I wish' "Then I'm sure he beat them all up and rested to heal up his wounds, he'll be fine. We have class today, and he'd come back from the grave to not miss a lesson." James got up from his bed, stepped over and placed a hand on her head. To which she made a grumbling sound.

The vibrating of James's scroll cut off any more conversation, as James took his hand off Nora's head and held it up with silent intrigue.

"Who is it!? Is it Ren!?"

The force of Nora pushing against his back caused him to fumble with the scroll, pushing the accept button before he could even see who the call was from.

"Hello, Mr Flare."

The calm expression of Ozpin greeted them, and James morphed his face into the most pleasant smile he could, "Hello Headmast-"

"Sir, Ren's missing!" Nora pushed his head out the way as she leaned into the headmaster's view, "He was attacked and captured by Grimm ninja sloths!"

There was a faint calling of, "That's not a thing, Nora." from off-screen on the other end of the line.

"Renny!?"

Ozpin smiled, "Don't worry Ms Valkyrie, Mr Lie is quite fine and was with us all night. He was involved in an... incident yesterday and couldn't go back to the dorms. Oh, and as for the Grimm ninja sloths..." Ozpin winked, "Don't worry, those were wiped out years ago."

James could hear Nora sigh as she leaned back in relief, bringing his own face back into view. His pleasant smile hadn't changed at all.

"Now, other than informing you of the whereabouts of your teammate, I have called to also personally ask you to come to my office. I will inform you as to why when you get here, please inform your team that they can got to lessons as normal, and make sure Ms Nikos knows that Mr Lie is fine."

"Of course." James nodded, smile still there, "When would you like me at your office sir?"

"As soon as you can would be best." James nodded again, "Outstanding, I'll see you then, have a good morning." and the line went dead.

James slowly moved his scroll from his face, letting his arm fall to the side. His mind worked at a million miles a minute, trying to place so many things together. An incident involving Ren, what incident!? There was nothing involving him this early in the timeline, was there? His memory was perfect, there was no way he forgot anything, so this was _new._ Same as him being called into the office, there was nothing involving Jaune and going to see Ozpin, so they had to be related.

Damn that intruder, his arrival had caused ripple effects, luckily he had him eliminatedbefore things got out of hand. As it was now, he could get things back on track towards his perfect _ending_.

"That's a relief about Renny, ain't it fearless leader?" He heard Nora behind him.

"Yes, of course." He bit out with a strained smile.

* * *

As James rode the elevator up towards Ozpin's office, an unnecessarily long elevator is his opinion, he wondered what this 'incident' could be, as that was obviously what the meeting was about. Could it involve Ren quite heavily, so he was being informed because he was the leader of his team? Maybe, but he doubted it. The entire team would be informed if that was the case. He _hated_ that he couldn't figure it out.

There was a ding, and the elevator stopped moving. The doors slid open and he walked through, spotting Ozpin behind his desk with his signature cup of coffee at his side, as well as Glynda Goodwitch standing next to him.

Upon seeing James, Ozpin gave a nod and a smile, "Ah, Mr Flare, good to see you, I hope you're doing well?"

"Always, sir." He politely replied.

"Good, good. Now, you've probably been wracking your brain as to why we've called you here, and let me just say that no, you aren't in any trouble." he had suspected, yet a small weight was lifted off his shoulders, "I'd just like to ask you one question: would you like to earn some extra credit?"

James pondered this question for a few seconds. If he were to honestly answer this question, he would say no. He had enough on his plate as it was, especially now of all times, and anything that Ozpin gave him personally would be high-maintenance. No, the question he should be asking himself would be: _Could_ he say no?

Given the studious image he had built for himself, would turning this down make sense? The answer was probably no. Hell, that was most likely why they had offered this to him in the first place, because he was most likely to take it and do a good job.

Ozpin was not stupid, and neither was Goodwitch.

So, with a heavy mind, James replied, "Of course, sir."

"Splendid!" Ozpin clapped his hands together, "Now, the assignment is going to be high-maintenance-" called it, "-but I believe a student of your calibre is up to the task. Recently, a very important guest has been admitted to Beacon, to see our facilities and such, and we believed the best way to get that across would to be to have a student show them around, introduce them to other students and the like. Now the person in question is not here at the moment-"

There was a ding of the elevator stopping once more.

"-But that's probably him right now."

The shifting of doors sounded out behind James, causing him to stand up and turn around as two people stepped through the door, causing his eyes to widen.

'No...'

A mismatched pair of eyes stared at him, one with a fully black iris, and a bright red slit pupil, the other plain brown.

"I'm sure you're already familiar with Mr Lie," Ozpin joked, "And this is our guest-"

'NO NO NO NO'

"-Frank."

* * *

 **Author's note**

 **Hello, my dear readers. Sup?**

 **Here's another chapter for you, coming at ya live from FF dot net. Told you I would, it just took a month.**

 **So, something different for today's chapter is the fact that I now have a sla- I mean editor, yes that's right, editor.**

 **He's been a big help with feedback and stuff, as much as he likes to down play it. So everyone give it up for** **Numb3rs96.**

 **Anyway, feedback is always appreciated, so leave them reviews and such. See ya.**

 **Your author, Zakku**


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